The Uninvited
by b-w-williams
Summary: A simple accident leads to something far more complicated. And far more troublesome. Warning for language, slash and some mild violence. J/I also I/OMC later on.
1. Chapter 1

Title: The Uninvited

Summary: A simple accident leads to something far more complicated. And far more troublesome. Set after Adam (2x05).

Warnings: Language, slash and some violence. (There is something that MIGHT be considered non-con, but it isn't really to be taken that way and I hopefully haven't written it that way either.)

Pairing: Jack/Ianto. (Also I/OMC later on.)

A/N: After a few silly little fics I thought I'd bring out the big guns. Oh and I've not had it beta'd because I'm too impatient. Enjoy!

* * *

The rain had turned to hail, tiny lumps of ice suddenly battering down upon Ianto Jones as he hurried along the path. He scowled and lifted one arm, attempting to shield his head from the unexpectedly harsh weather. It was a pointless effort and he soon gave up, opting to merely wipe at his soaked face instead and press onwards. In his other hand he held his gun, pointing safely down towards the ground, index finger stretched out along the barrel instead of ready on the trigger; he already knew that he wouldn't need to use the weapon.

The team had spent the day following a fair-sized group of Weevils through the city, their nest apparently stirred up by some earlier Rift activity. The beasts had all finally been accounted for, save a particularly sneaky one that he and Owen had been attempting to flank in the narrow alleyways that wound through a collection of run-down old buildings. Considering Owen's last call across the comms. that he already had hold of the Weevil, Ianto didn't really need to hurry, but he still kept up the swift pace, rather eager to get out of the icy cold rain.

The wind picked up, howling along the narrow road and pushing him forward. Ianto shivered and tugged the collar of his jacket up. He hoped, he really did, that whatever had disturbed the Weevils had not bothered anything else, because the day had already been long enough and all he wanted right then was to change out of his wet clothes and spend the rest of the evening somewhere warm and dry. Preferably with the largest cup he could find, full to the brim with strong coffee.

Almost impossibly, the wind grew even stronger, forcing him to stumble faster towards the next corner that would bring him back to Owen and his Weevil. The noise of the air moving past his ears shifted up from a natural wail, increasing in pitch and volume until his head rang and his vision blurred. He staggered, his foot slipping on the wet curb, but before he could regain his balance a flair of light exploded before his eyes and he fell into the road.

The grey world tumbled around him, spinning so that he could no longer be sure which way was up, until at last it slowed and came to rest and he was on the ground, staring up into the hail.

Shocked, Ianto lay there, motionless, blinking occasionally against the frozen droplets falling onto his face. He was numb with surprise and alarm, but as he turned his head to the side, pain blossomed along the entire length of the right side of his body. Ianto gasped loudly, eyes squeezed shut against the agony, mind whirling with confusion over what precisely had just happened.

The sound of footsteps broke through his bewildered thoughts, moving steadily towards him, not hurried, not hesitant. He twisted, trying to look up and caught sight of a figure crouching down beside him. A pale face appeared above his own.

"Don't worry," a female voice said. "You'll be all right. I wasn't going that fast."

Ianto heaved in a huge lungful of air, hoping to ask her what had happened, but all that came out was a pained groan.

"Shh," the stranger said gently, placing a hand on his right arm and causing him to clench his jaw before another moan could escape. "It's okay, Ianto. You'll be okay."

He barely even heard the reassuring whisper, or the use of his name by someone he was pretty sure he didn't know. His eyes rolled back into his head and a blanket of darkness settled over him.

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

Ianto was vaguely aware of being moved, his body manhandled from one pool of light to another, whilst his mind floated separate from everything that happened around him.

Finally, however, another voice broke though the haze. "Right, all done."

Ianto blinked, focus returning to his vision, and the blur in front of him sharpened into the familiar shape of Torchwood's resident doctor. He looked around, finding himself inexplicably seated on the metal bed in the autopsy bay.

Ianto gaped at Owen Harper for a long silent moment before looking down at himself. His clothes were a damp mess, ripped and bloodied, and his right arm was encased in a fresh fibreglass cast from hand to elbow. "What happened?" he asked, recalling only the fall and the agony that followed.

"You," Owen began matter-of-factly, wiping his hands as he spoke, "were hit by a car." He shook his head. "The whole day chasing bloody aliens and you get hit by a car? That's just embarrassing, mate."

Ianto blinked again and said nothing. He lifted his hand to examine the wet bandages and felt his body protesting the movement. From the feel of it he had bruises all down his right side, but that wasn't anything he couldn't handle; he had been bruised more than enough times to be accustomed to the sensation by now. He wiggled the exposed tips of his fingers, fascinated by the fact that he couldn't feel them moving.

Owen reached up, pressing at something on Ianto's forehead and the younger man flinched away from the contact. "Take it easy, I was just checking your stitches."

"Stitches?" Ianto echoed, futilely looking upwards.

Owen grunted in confirmation, tipping his head back and squinting down his nose at the wound on Ianto's forehead before producing a square of thick white gauze and taping it into place.

"Ah-hah! Back with us at last?" Captain Jack Harkness asked cheerfully, appearing on the walkway above them. Ianto looked up as the new arrival leaned over the handrail and grinned down at him. "You had us worried for a while there, Ianto, all non-compos mentis and so on. How's he doing, Owen?"

"There's no serious damage, other than the arm, and he's got a few bruises and a small cut on the head. He'll be in the cast for a good few weeks, but nothing really to be worried about."

Ianto frowned at his newly encased forearm. He had never broken his arm before, never broken any bones at all before, and whilst he supposed it was better than one of his legs being damaged, he couldn't quite agree with Owen's blasé declaration. How was he supposed to be of any use with only one hand?

There were more things said, but he ignored the other two men, paying attention only when Owen produced a blue plastic sling and told him to make sure his arm was kept dry and elevated as much as possible for the next couple of days. Ianto nodded dutifully, accepted the dose of fantastically effective painkillers that Torchwood employees were privy to, and excused himself.

"Whoa!" Gwen Cooper cried out, almost colliding with him at the top of the stairs. Her expression shifted from surprise to elation in the blink of an eye. "Ianto! How are you feeling?"

Caught off guard, he floundered for a suitable response before finally realising what she wanted to hear. "Couldn't be better, thanks," he lied, trying to move around her. Gwen reached out to stop him, accidentally brushing against his injured arm. Ianto winced but made no sound, though pain ran through his body like a shot.

In a perverse way the agony served better than his polite attempt to escape Gwen. "Sorry, sorry!" she said with a grimace, pulling her hand back sharply.

"It's all right," Ianto reassured her, forcing a smile and hurrying to add, "I'm going to get changed."

With that he hurried away, the weight of three pairs of eyes heavy against his back.

* * *

Almost half an hour later, Ianto finally dropped the shirt in his hand to the floor, frustrated. There was really no way he could replace his ruined shirt with a new one; he had been trying unsuccessfully to get the sleeve over his now-set cast for a long time, mindlessly focused, despite the obvious futility of the entire endeavour and the ache that his movements produced.

Admitting defeat, he grabbed a t-shirt instead, stretching the worn cotton fabric over his injured arm and then fixing the sling Owen had given him across his shoulder, holding his arm securely in place. He sighed, annoyed at the inconvenience of having one less limb to work with.

Back in the Hub's central room, Ianto looked around, unable to decide what to do with himself. He knew he had a long list of things that needed tending to but couldn't seem to recall anything actually on that list. Shrugging mentally to himself, he moved across to a workstation set away from the others, pulling over a chair and attempting to sit without putting too much weight on his bruises. He tapped at the controls with his uninjured hand, slowly flicking through various programs, waiting for something to catch his eye.

"What are you up to?"

Ianto jumped and twisted his head to look up at Jack, standing close behind the chair and peering over his shoulder. The younger man blinked, confused, then looked back to the glowing screen in front of him. There were lines of text there, and an image from the interior cameras just visible behind the main window. Ianto frowned a little as he scanned the text quickly, recognising a few figures from the Hub's internal systems. "I was just trying to help Tosh sort out the problems we've been having with the security sensors," he explained. _Apparently_, he added in his head, alarmed that he couldn't remember pulling up the information, let alone working on it.

"You should be resting," Jack told him.

Ianto gave him a bemused look. "It's just a broken arm. I've had worse."

"Uh huh," the Captain agreed reluctantly. "How is it?"

Ianto looked down at the cast cradled against his chest and considered the question carefully. "It itches," he replied at last, forehead creasing as the tingling sensation seemed to increase with his attention.

Jack rocked a little on his heels, hands shoved casually in his pockets. "Well, everyone else has gone home for the night, but if you'd like I could help scratch it?"

The frown deepened on Ianto's face. "They've gone?" he asked, lifting his undamaged left arm to check the time. It was almost eleven at night, meaning that over five hours had passed since they had all returned to the Hub after the hunt. And he had seemingly spent most of that time at the workstation, completely oblivious to what he was doing. "Oh," he murmured. "I should probably get going too."

The declaration made Jack hesitate. "I'm not sure you should be alone tonight," he began carefully. "You might be suffering from shock."

"I feel fine."

"That doesn't mean you're not in shock."

Ianto stood, forcing a smile onto his lips. "I'm okay, Jack. Just need a good night's rest." He reached across to switch off the monitor, abandoning whatever work he might have done in the past few hours, and then turned to make his way out of the Hub.

"You can't drive," Jack pointed out, once he was halfway to the exit.

Ianto's step faltered. "I'll get a taxi."

"Why don't you let me take you home?"

"I'll be fine, Jack, Thank you."

"Ianto!"

Ianto stopped, sighing to himself and waiting for Jack to continue. There came only silence and he gave into curiosity and turned around, tensing slightly to find that the older man had crossed the large room and was right behind him once again.

Jack held out his hand, a small bottle within it. "Owen left these for you. Painkillers." He watched intently as Ianto reached out to take the medication, and grabbed his hand when he made to move away again. "Are you sure you're okay?" Jack asked, squeezing the fingers in his grasp and ducking his head slightly to catch Ianto's eye.

The younger man returned the gaze, though his expression was flat and unreadable. "I just want to go home and sleep," he said and then offered a small smile that seemed to reassure Jack more than anything he could say.

Jack expelled a breath loudly and dropped the other's hand. "Go on then, get out of here. And take tomorrow off."

Ianto smiled honestly at that. "We don't get days off," he pointed out wryly, turning and exiting the Hub, leaving the Captain frowning at the door as it shut firmly behind him.

* * *

Ianto did not take a taxi. He did not even consider the manner in which he was going to get home, he simply began walking and some indeterminate time later found himself outside the door to his flat, shivering from the cold as he had, apparently, forgotten to pick up a jacket before leaving the Hub.

Letting himself into the small apartment, Ianto shoved the door closed and moved over to the sofa in the middle of the room, not bothering to switch on any lights as he went. He collapsed into the cushions, groaning in a mixture of pain and relief, eyes closing and chin falling forward onto his chest.

The ringing of a phone brought his head back up and he looked around drowsily, bewildered for a moment. It felt as though he had barely closed his eyes, let alone actually slept, but he couldn't be sure, especially as the room now seemed lighter than before. Glancing over to the window, he could see a thin line of daylight around the edge of the blinds; blinds he had forgotten to open the previous morning as he hurried to work and the trouble that awaited him there.

The phone was still ringing and Ianto rubbed at his eyes before bending awkwardly in order to reach the mobile tucked in his trouser pocket. He managed to extract it, flip it open and was just lifting it to his ear when the ringing sounded again.

Rolling his eyes, Ianto pushed himself up off the couch, abandoning his mobile on the cushions and heading instead for the landline. His fingers had barely closed over the receiver when it fell silent and he glared down at it accusingly.

A glance at his watch told him it was definitely morning, time for him to be getting ready to head back into work. He walked through his bedroom into the bathroom and stopped. A shower was out of the question with the cast, despite his longing for one, and a bath would take too long, so he set about washing as best he could, one-handed and aching, from the basin.

His right arm was throbbing, his leg was swollen slightly, his shoulders and neck felt as though they had been wrenched in the wrong direction and his head was pounding. The moment he had finished towelling himself off, he rummaged through his discarded clothes to find the pills Jack had given him the night before and swallowed a couple dry.

The phone began to ring again and Ianto huffed air loudly through his nose, stalking out of the bathroom, completely naked, to grab the phone beside his bed. He lifted it to his ear and growled, "Yes?!"

"Hello? Hello, Mr. Jones?"

But Ianto wasn't listening. He was opening and closing his mouth, trying to speak, trying to make any sound with his voice. And failing.

"What?" he said, sure he had spoken and yet the word did not seem to reach his ears. "Hello?" he tried again, returning the phone to his mouth to see whether the person on the other end could hear him, but they had already hung up, presumably having heard only silence on the line.

"Hello?" Ianto repeated in disbelief, the cordless phone falling to the floor, forgotten. He shouted the word again, louder and louder until his throat was raw from trying, and still no sound emerged.

Baffled, he knocked on the bedside table, making the noise to check his hearing, in spite of the fact he had quite clearly heard the phone ringing only moments earlier. Unsurprisingly he could still hear, which, whilst a good thing, provided no hint at all as to how he might have lost his voice in a matter of hours.

Shocked, he could think of nothing else to do but finish getting ready. He focused on dressing, managing with some twisting, silent cursing, and a tiny bit of tearing, to slide the sleeve of a deep red shirt over his cast. He pushed the material up to his elbow, out of the way, and then twisted around to slip his left arm into the empty sleeve. The young man was sweating by the end of the ordeal.

Increasingly annoyed by his injury and the awkward start to his day, Ianto scowled at his reflection as he brushed his teeth, completely unimpressed by the grey tint to his skin, the dark shadows under his eyes and the livid red slash of the wound on his forehead, visible now that he had thrown away the stained gauze pad in disgust.

When he remembered that he couldn't drive to work, that his car was in fact still in the parking lot beneath the Millennium Centre and thus no use to him anyway, his irritation doubled, culminating just short of a full blown tantrum as he threw the phone against a wall, halfway through dialling the number for a local taxi firm.

* * *


	3. Chapter 3

* * *

The numbers on the screen whirled across Toshiko Sato's vision, her dark eyes flickering side to side, absorbing all of the information without having to pause the stream of data. There was something within the figures, something that was out of place, but she couldn't put her finger on precisely what.

She bit her bottom lip thoughtfully and then opened up a new window on another screen in a rush of inspiration.

"Jack?" she called out, tapping away frantically at the keys. Movement in the corner of her eye indicated his arrival and she went on. "I've found a connection between a surge from a week ago and the one that stirred up the Weevils yesterday."

"What kind of connection?" The Captain glanced over at the bank of screens with interest.

"The readings for the first event are identical to the second, which would suggest they originated from the same source. We've seen sets of identical energy signatures in the past and they've always been linked in some way."

"When have we seen them?" Jack asked, his tone suggesting that he already had an idea of the answer.

"Well, for example, we saw matching readings when Captain Hart both arrived and left again a few months ago," Tosh said slowly.

"Oh, don't tell me-" groaned Jack, but Tosh shook her head before he could finish.

"No, no, these aren't the same as his, but they're close. I don't suppose you were expecting any other old friends to drop by were you?"

Jack folding his arms across his chest. "I hope not."

"What's going on?" Gwen asked, appearing suddenly and joining the pair at Tosh's station. She looked at the monitors, saw nothing that would answer her question and turned to Jack with an open and expectant expression on her face.

"Jack's got another friend coming to visit," Tosh explained.

"Jack better not have," the Captain countered with a growl. "Where did the first event occur, Tosh? And why didn't we pick up on it at the time?"

Toshiko pulled up a map of the city. "It was last Tuesday in Grange Gardens, near the pavilion to be precise. But the spike was too small to be of any concern, and there were no reports of anything unusual happening around that time, so it was put in the 'To Be Advised' file."

"Ah," Jack said succinctly.

"Is that the file we never get around to because the 'Urgent' one is always overflowing?" Gwen joked, before her face fell. "Wait, last Tuesday?"

"Yep. Right when something so awful happened that we had to Retcon ourselves," said Tosh with a wary smile.

"You don't think they're related do you?"

The three fell silent as the worrying idea filled their thoughts. Finally Jack shook his head decisively. "No, can't be. We wouldn't have wiped Monday from our memories if the trouble only started on Tuesday."

Both Tosh and Gwen gave a relieved sigh at the Captain's logic, eager to embrace the idea that the similarity in timing was due to coincidence and nothing more sinister.

"Okay, we'd better take a look at-" Jack broke off as the large cog-wheel door began to roll aside, the familiar alarm that accompanied it filling the air and interrupting his orders. The trio glanced over to see Ianto walk in, the last of the team to arrive and over an hour later than even Owen had rolled in that morning. He was almost completely dressed in his usual impeccable manner, though his suit jacket was slung over his shoulders; his left arm tucked beneath the material and immobile in its blue sling.

"Good of you to join us, Ianto," Jack called, moving to the chain railing at the top of the steps and grinning at him. "How's that arm doing?"

The younger man responded with an unhappy glare as he climbed the stairs and walked past Jack, heading for Tosh's workstation.

"Are you okay?" Gwen asked as he sifted through the collection of items on the desk. After a moment he picked up a pen and pressed it against a pad of paper with his left hand.

He gave up after drawing a single wobbly line, reaching over Tosh instead to use her keyboard. Everyone leaned forward to watch what he was doing. 'I CAN'T SPEAK' appeared on the screen, right in the middle of a complex equation.

The two women and Jack turned to face him, confused.

Ianto's eyebrows rose above dark-ringed eyes and he moved his mouth, clearly echoing the words he had just written, and yet no sound emerged.

Jack was the first to recover. "How did that happen?" he asked and received a withering glower in response. "You don't know, do you?"

Ianto shook his head, seeming to deflate as he ran his free hand through his hair.

Jack turned towards the autopsy bay. "OWEN!" he hollered loudly.

* * *

Owen scanned the sheet of paper in his hand, frowned, and then looked up at the monitor displaying the same information, as though the figures might have changed somehow as they were printed. They hadn't, but he checked the paper again, just in case. "Nope," he declared at last. "There's nothing here."

"Nothing?" Jack repeated, sounding rather dubious.

"Nothing, nadda, zip." The young doctor threw his arms out helplessly. "There is nothing physically wrong with him, except his arm of course, and if I recall correctly from my days as a _normal_ doctor dealing with _normal_ ailments, the arms do not directly affect the voice."

Jack smirked. "But you're not dealing with normal ailments anymore," he pointed out.

"Nooo," Owen agreed. "Which is why I ran a full work-up on his blood, performed a dozen scans of his body, hooked him up to every machine we have, and still found nothing unusual."

There came a strange ringing noise and both men looked around to where a silent Ianto stood at the railing, knocking his knuckles against the metal to get their attention. He pointed to his mouth.

"Well I know _that's_ unusual," Owen retorted. "But there's nothing out of the ordinary in your test results to explain what's caused it."

"So you've got no idea then," Jack surmised.

"Ah, now I didn't say that," Owen told him smugly. "The way I see it, there are three possible explanations for the loss of his voice without any corroborating medical evidence. Firstly, he lost it like people usually do, through screaming loudly or whatever, over a sustained period of time." He narrowed his eyes at Ianto. "You weren't out singing karaoke last night, were you?"

The sour look he received spoke louder than words ever could.

"Wouldn't he still be able to make some sort of noise though?" the Captain asked on Ianto's behalf.

"Yes, which is why it's unlikely and yet not entirely impossible. Second, we have the obligatory theory that this is something alien we've not encountered before and which doesn't show up in the system as an unnatural entity."

"Plausible, but I certainly hope that isn't the case."

"Right, though you might not like my third idea either." He hesitated and glanced briefly towards Ianto before looking back to Jack. "It might all be in his head."

Ianto's eyes widened at the other's words and he circled the walkway, moving nearer to the steps leading down to Jack and Owen. He opened his mouth to protest, only to shut it again immediately with a loud clack of his teeth.

Owen lifted his hands to placate him. "Just listen for a minute. Your vocal cords are adducting to the midline, which means you _can_ talk, you just _aren't_ talking. People who have experienced traumatic events sometimes develop functional aphonia but-" he trailed off as Ianto span on his heel and climbed out of the autopsy bay.

He hunched over Owen's desk, watched warily by the other two men until he finally turned and moved back to them, a notepad in his free hand. He held it up to reveal a word, written hurriedly with the wrong hand. 'Traumatic?!' it said and he juggled the pad around in order to point a finger at his broken arm.

Jack couldn't help but smile. "After all that we've been through, a little RTA is your undoing?" He sighed in mock disappointment. Ianto turned his icy glare onto the Captain, who cleared his throat and looked quickly back to Owen. "He was fine yesterday. Shaken, maybe, but talking. I could tell, you see, because he argued with me and that's a sure sign of his being able to talk." He grinned at Ianto in the hope that his humour would ease the young man's irritation but it clearly wasn't going to work. He shrugged at Ianto's stony expression, unrepentant for trying.

"You might not think it was traumatic," Owen persisted, "but some people don't accept the danger until after the fact. You were hit by a car, which is a pretty big deal. You could have been killed, Ianto, and perhaps this is just the shock of that possibility kicking in."

Ianto rolled his eyes and walked away again, moving back to Owen's station and beginning to tap at the keyboard.

Jack exchanged a glance with Owen. "So it couldn't be anything to do with his head injury?" he asked, knowing full well that the skilled doctor would have already ruled that out.

"I doubt it. The wound wasn't nearly deep enough to cause any real damage and there's no sign of any other trauma to the head. Honestly, Jack, I think it's purely psychological."

"Hmm," said Jack. "So what now?"

"Now we wait, see if he makes a miraculous recovery and if he doesn't, we run some more tests and scratch our heads again in a few days time."

Jack nodded in understanding and made his way over to where Ianto was still working on something at Owen's desk.

"Are you okay?" he asked, placing a hand on Ianto's shoulder. The younger man met his gaze and smiled weakly. He shrugged and returned his attention to the monitor.

"Listen, don't take this the wrong way, but if you want to leave, have some time by yourself, you can."

Ianto nodded towards a blank screen and began typing. 'No days off, remember?'

"Ah but I'm the boss, remember, and I say sick days are acceptable."

One of Ianto's eyebrows rose in doubt.

"Well, all right, there was that time I dragged Owen straight from his bed to work, ratty boxers and all, but he was clearly hung over, not ill."

Ianto lifted a finger and stuck it in his open mouth, miming the act of vomiting and managing to do it with a surprising amount of elegance.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean it really was food poisoning."

"It WAS food poisoning and you bloody well know it!" Owen argued loudly from the autopsy bay.

Jack laughed and ignored him, watching instead as Ianto began to type again.

'I'd rather be here in case anything else happens.'

"Like what?"

Ianto looked down at himself meaningfully. 'I dread to think,' he wrote.

"Eh," Jack said, waving away his concern. "All in a day's work. Well, the mysterious voice-loss side of things, not so much the accident. Oh, I've got Gwen on the case, by the way, tracking down the car that hit you. I'd have been inclined to forgive this stranger, but he went and ran away without even stopping to see if you were okay."

'She,' Ianto corrected.

"Oh really?"

Ianto nodded, then added to his writing. 'Pretty.'

"Oh _really_?" Jack drawled again, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. "And I suppose you just happened to notice her beauty as you tumbled over the bonnet of her car, right?"

Ianto began to nod, spirits lifting at the banter, but then frowned deeply in thought. 'Actually, no,' he wrote. 'She stopped. I remember her saying she hadn't been going that fast.'

"Huh." The Captain crossed his arms. "You didn't mention that yesterday." When Ianto shrugged unhelpfully he took a guess at what the younger man was thinking. "You didn't remember it yesterday?"

Ianto shook his head. He looked tired and Jack wondered if he had gotten enough sleep the night before. He hadn't been positive that letting Ianto go home on his own was a smart idea, but he was a grown man, one who could take care of himself, and Jack had been hesitant to force the issue when the young Welshman clearly wanted to be alone.

Some people would accept over-protectiveness only so far before they began to suspect the other person lacked faith in them. And Jack had a great deal of faith in Ianto.

"Well," he said, remembering suddenly what they had been talking about. "Even if she did stop, she left before we found you and didn't call for help. I think it's only fair someone has a little word with her about accident etiquette."

Ianto shook his head again slowly, well aware that it would be pointless to argue. He turned back to the monitor and flicked over to the files he had opened earlier.

"Ah, I'd forgotten about those reports," Jack said, noticing what he was doing. "What ever would I do without you?" He clapped Ianto on the shoulder, hard enough to make him tense his sore muscles. "Sorry."

Turning to move away, he had another thought and continued around, performing a full pirouette back to Ianto's side, one finger pointing upwards in punctuation. "By the way, if you have trouble doing anything you'd normally do with two hands, don't hesitate to shout for help." He smiled at the look on Ianto's face. "Okay, so don't shout. Make a noise, ring a bell, whatever, and someone will come help."

Ianto stared at him dubiously. Reaching across Owen's cluttered desk he picked up an empty mug and held it in his hand, eyebrows raised in silent query.

"That wasn't quite what I meant," Jack told him, gaze sweeping downwards for longer than was absolutely necessary. He looked back up with an unabashed grin upon his lips. "But if you're making one..."

* * *


	4. Chapter 4

* * *

"Okay, remind me again what we're doing here?" Owen grumbled, looking around the park without much enthusiasm.

"We're trying to find out what came through the Rift last week," Toshiko explained patiently, eyes fixed on the device in her hand. It was raining again, a light drizzle that was barely noticeable until one was completely soaked through, and she was continually pushing damp strands of hair out of her eyes.

"We didn't find anything earlier at that Weevil nest, what makes you think we'll find anything here?"

Tosh shrugged. "Because this is where the energy signature first appeared."

"We could at least have waited until it stopped raining," Owen went on, pulling the collar of his jacket up sharply.

"This is nothing compared to the last few weeks," Tosh pointed out. "Winter has set in, Owen, just accept it."

"I haven't even been on my summer holiday yet," muttered Owen wryly.

Ahead of them, Jack and Gwen were circling the pavilion, looking for anything out of the ordinary and clearly having no success. They had already revisited the site of the disturbance from the previous day, the area deserted now that the nest had been cleared out, but had found nothing unusual there. Certainly nothing to explain what had stirred up the Weevils.

Tosh tapped a few numbers into her PDA. "There is a faint residual reading, but really it's been too long to get anything concrete." She looked up to find that Owen was no longer beside her. Alarmed, she span around, spotting him instantly a few paces away, standing by a bench upon which sat a rather attractive woman huddled beneath a red umbrella. Concern turned swiftly to exasperation as she stalked over, catching the end of what the woman was saying to him.

"Tuesday last week, you mean? Oh God, I'll never forget that day!"

"What happened?" Owen asked, voice slipping into the tone he reserved for fearful patients.

"Oh," the woman said again, shaking her head. "It was horrible. Horrible! I brought my boys down to play," she pointed towards a pair of small children in raincoats and boots chasing each other around a nearby tree, "like I always do in the afternoon. I sat here watching them play and I felt fine. Absolutely fine. But clearly I wasn't, because the next thing I knew they were shaking me, trying to wake me up!" Her eyes had widened fearfully. "I'd fallen asleep, God help me. Sleeping whilst my babies could have been hurt or kidnapped or run off." She stared at the two boys, shivering slightly. "I felt awful, just awful. How could I have done such a stupid thing?!"

Owen exchanged a glance with Tosh, the initial thrill of discovering something draining swiftly away. "Right," he said, unimpressed. "Well, I'm sure you'll be more careful in the future." And with that he turned on his heel and walked off. Tosh gave the woman a tense smile of apology and hurried after him.

Owen had already stopped someone else on the pathway. "Excuse me, mate, you didn't happen to be here a week last Tuesday, did you?"

The man gave him a suspicious look. "I don't have time to stop," he said as he hurried past, circling Owen as though he might be infected with something contagious.

"I'm not trying to sell you anything!" Owen called after the man, but he ignored the doctor and scurried off down the path without looking back. Turning to Tosh, Owen shrugged. "Do I look a bit dodgy or something?" he asked her.

Tosh smiled at him, taking in his wet and bedraggled appearance. "Perfectly trustworthy," she assured him, a flutter building in her stomach as he grinned in response.

"Right answer." And he turned away again, striding off towards Jack and Gwen, making her jog to catch up with him.

"Anything?" Jack asked, as soon as they were within earshot.

Owen shook his head. "A whole lot of nothing, right Tosh?"

"Well the residual energy is still here, just about, but it's really not enough to work with. I can't tell anything different from what I'm seeing here than what I had back at the Hub."

"See," Owen said. "Nothing. And we came all the way out here in the rain to find it too. Lucky us."

Gwen, who had possessed the foresight to grab an umbrella on the way out, moved over to cover Tosh, making Owen grumble something under his breath that she pointedly ignored. "We can't see anything unusual around the pavilion either. Nothing to indicate that anything actually came out of the Rift here." She looked across at the sodden Captain. "So we're back at square one I guess?"

"There are a few more programs I'd like to run the energy signature through," said Tosh thoughtfully. "And maybe if I change the calibrations I can pick up a more detailed trail somewhere, but I wouldn't be sure on its reliability. The higher the sensitivity, the more likely the results will be contaminated by other spikes of energy nearby."

Gwen frowned, trying to make sense of the other woman's explanation. "You can't get the computers to just search for this one signature then?"

"I could, however it's so faint that I'd have to allow for a certain degree of error, background noise and so on. It would be difficult to follow."

"I like difficult," Jack announced suddenly. "Makes the challenge worthwhile." He grinned at his team but got a rather damp and indifferent response from each of them.

* * *

"Ianto! Where did you put that paperwork I needed?"

Ianto shook his head in bemusement as Jack's voice bounced around the Hub. It was clearly time for a caffeine fix if the older man had forgotten, or simply didn't care, that Ianto couldn't very well answer when he wasn't within sight of the Captain. He rose to his feet and rubbed at his eyes, yawning as he did so.

He had spent the day in front of a computer screen whilst the others had ran about the city, searching for clues to the mysterious Rift activity, and his eyes were stinging with fatigue.

In his early days at Torchwood Cardiff he had spent most of his time in the Hub, providing a link to any of the systems that the team couldn't access from afar, as well as all of his usual duties. Although he had no problem with the role at the time, he now found it difficult to wait behind whilst everyone else was out investigating. Of course he'd possessed an ulterior motive back then, a reason to stay close to the underground base and the secret he had kept hidden in the deep passages, but after the loss of Lisa things had been shaken up entirely, including his place within the team.

He had only been there for a few months before her death, so it was entirely possible that his role would have progressed in the same manner without the shocking events leading up to Lisa's demise and the revelation that he was not merely a servant but a living being as well. Regardless of whether he might have forever been Torchwood's Tea-Boy or not, things hadn't worked out that way and he had grown surprisingly accustomed to dashing out with the others on some urgent quest.

Shuffling a handful of papers into a neat pile, Ianto slipped them one-handed into a folder and left the workstation, heading in the direction of Jack's office. He circled the large central room in order to spend far too long preparing a mug of incredibly strong coffee as he passed by the machine. He considered making enough for everyone else, but that would involve multiple trips back and forth across the Hub and as Jack yelled his name once again, he decided it would have to wait until the Captain was placated.

Once in the office he set the mug carefully down in front of Jack, who was staring intently at a half-completed form, and tried not to drop the file wedged under his arm. He then set about extracting said file without losing any of the loose paper within it and placed it neatly on the desk. After waiting a moment to see if Jack was going to either thank him or ask for something else, and getting neither, Ianto made to exit the room.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Jack demanded, stopping Ianto just outside the office.

The young man popped his head back through the doorway, eyebrows raised curiously.

"You need to help me with this," Jack told him, waving the file vigorously enough to dislodge the pages tucked inside. They tumbled out, drifting far enough to almost entirely cover the floor. Jack looked down at the mess and then back up again, giving Ianto his most winning smile. "Oops," he said, sounding anything but contrite.

Ianto sighed and moved back into the office, crouching down to help Jack retrieve the papers.

"How is that arm of yours, anyway?" Jack asked, edging closer to reach another sheet.

Ianto paused to make an 'okay' sign with his left hand, not looking up from the scattered forms. It was true, for once; he had recently taken his painkillers, and his arm and bruises only throbbed rather than burned whenever he moved.

"Good, good," Jack murmured and suddenly he was in Ianto's face, causing the younger man to unbalance onto his backside, coming up hard against the panels of the desk behind him. Jack laughed and moved closer, crawling up the length of his prone body, whilst Ianto stared at him with wide, surprised eyes.

"Oh, don't give me that look, I didn't do it on purpose."

Ianto's gaze flicked sideways towards the door.

"Don't worry, they can't see us," murmured the Captain. He leaned closer, cheek brushing against Ianto's. "I missed you last night," he breathed into Ianto's ear, fingers trailing along his thighs. The young man gasped ineffectively as the ache of the bruises there flared up and he tried to pull away, but he was securely pinned and couldn't move in any direction. Jack chuckled again, failing to realise the reason for other's reaction as his lips followed the line of Ianto's jaw towards his mouth.

Ianto's left hand came to rest on Jack's chest, just as Jack kissed him hard enough to knock his head against the edge of the desk. A flash of pain blossomed at the back of his skull and then it cascaded, impossibly fast, through his body, until it felt as though his every nerve was on fire. Shocked, Ianto pushed harder, holding Jack at arm's length and blinking frantically to stop his vision from spinning.

One corner of Jack's mouth curled up, eyes darkening as though he had been challenged and he moved forward again, heated breath flowing over his lover's wet lips.

Ianto gritted his teeth, instinctively keeping himself from crying out, and with a burst of desperate energy shoved Jack far enough away for him to scramble clumsily to his feet.

Chest heaving as he fought for breath, he stared down at Jack, who was still on his knees, brow creased with bewilderment. "What's wrong?"

Ianto didn't respond, instead he wiped his hand over his heated face, deliberately slowing his breathing in order to calm down. The pain started to dissipate and he slumped wearily into a nearby chair.

Jack, who had apparently risen from the floor whilst Ianto pulled himself together, produced a notebook and pen and held them out for the younger man to use. Ianto slowly took the pen and began to write shakily with his left hand.

'Sorry,' he printed and Jack immediately shook his head.

"I don't care about that, just tell me what happened."

Ianto laughed once, humourless and silent. 'It hurt.'

Jack sighed and crouched down in front of him, staring at the pad in his hand for longer than was necessary to read those two words. "I'm sorry, Ianto. I didn't think."

Guilt filled the young Welshman and he reached out to gently touch Jack's hand, drawing the Captain's attention to him. He smiled, forgiveness shining in his eyes, even as his back gave a twinge at the small movement. Pushing it aside, he looked instead at the paper still scattered across the floor. Jack followed his gaze. When he turned back and grinned up at Ianto, he knew the matter was no longer an issue. Over and done with, just like that.

By the time they had finished tidying up the documents, Ianto's pain had completely gone and he settled in a chair beside Jack to help with the paperwork.

It wasn't long before Jack grew bored and one of his hands found its way to Ianto's knee, brushing lightly over the neatly pressed material of his dark trousers. Ianto had been expecting it and he smiled for a brief moment before suddenly leaping to his feet as another wave of agony passed over him.

Jack followed him as he stumbled away, reaching out and grasping him by his upper arms and trying to look him in the eye. "What? What is it?"

But the place where Jack's hands touched him were spots of bright torment for Ianto and he wrenched himself away, once again short of breath and shaking at his body's reaction.

"Ianto?" Jack said, voice softening as he saw the fear and confusion on the young man's face.

Ianto looked up, shook his head to show that he didn't know, that Jack would have to figure it out for himself.

The Captain easily caught the meaning of his gesture and frowned in thought. He took a step forward, lifting a hand slowly so Ianto would see it coming and realise what he intended to do. Ianto mirrored the pose, holding out his free hand to show his acceptance of the experiment.

Their fingers touched for a heartbeat before Ianto pulled his hand away, fist clenched and cradled protectively against his chest.

Jack closed his eyes, drew in a deep breath and then turned to the doorway. "OWEN!" he yelled, for the second time that day.

* * *


	5. Chapter 5

* * *

Gwen's elbow slipped suddenly, jerking her hand from under her chin and shaking her out of her reverie. She looked around guiltily, not entirely sure what had distracted her from her work but pretty confident that it hadn't been Torchwood-related.

In front of her, spread across the boardroom's large table, were dozens of sheets of paper; printouts from her search of police reports, newspapers, radio broadcasts, hospital records and anything else that mentioned events near Grange Gardens throughout the previous week. There was rather a lot of information, a fair number of accidents and incidents, but Gwen's accustomed eye could tell that they were all simply run-of-the-mill everyday occurrences.

Nothing that had anything to do with the Rift and whatever it might have expelled in the park.

She started to flatten the crumpled page that had been beneath her elbow – a report about a domestic argument that had spilled out into the street – only to pause as the ring on her left hand caught the light. Smiling, she remembered why her mind had wandered.

A few days earlier she and Rhys had revisited the venue they had hired for their wedding; mostly in order to make the final payment, but also to confirm in their minds that it was definitely the right place for their special day. Having a firm booking had served only to build her excitement at the approaching celebrations, despite the fact that it was still months away, and apparently daydreaming about it was inviting enough to pull her thoughts away from the trouble she was having finding anything helpful in all the paperwork surrounding her.

Sighing loudly, she climbed out of the chair and turned to face the large monitor behind her. A few of the reports she had already printed were still open and she shut them down, revealing the results of her secondary project; the one Jack had set to find the owner of the car that had hit Ianto.

As a police officer, Gwen had seen many road accidents, a disturbing amount of which involved fatalities. Ianto had been fortunate to walk away with only relatively minor injuries, although it had certainly served to shake up not just the young man, but everyone else in the Hub as well.

Gwen had been surprised to find herself so, well, _surprised_ by the accident. It seemed that at some point she had stopped thinking about the concerns of the 'normal' world outside of Torchwood and began only to worry about threats from more bizarre and unnatural sources. She wondered when that had happened, when she had forgotten that people got hurt and killed by normal, everyday events.

On the large flat screen was a frozen image, monochromatic and grainy, which she had found on a CCTV system close to the location of Ianto's accident. It showed a T-junction joining two streets together, the smaller of the roads leading off towards the corner of the screen. Just at the edge of the image she could see the dark shadow of an object in the road. Ianto's body.

Gwen rewound the recording, though she had seen it half a dozen times already, and let it roll through again, slowing the playback until each frame remained on screen for a few seconds at a time. She watched the gradual progression of the silver hatchback as it appeared in shot at the top of the screen, moved steadily downwards and then swung through a left turn that took it onto the street along which Ianto was hurrying.

The interval between each shot of the camera was apparently six seconds long and during one of the jumps, the car clearly made contact with Ianto, for he went from being upright on the pavement, to out of sight in the road, blocked from the camera by the now motionless car.

A long sequence of identical shots began and Gwen leaned closer, trying to spot any changes between each one, something to suggest that the driver had exited the car, but nothing seemed to move at all. A few minutes after stopping, the car reversed a short distance and then pulled away, creeping around Ianto and leaving him lying face-up in the road.

It seemed as though an age passed where nothing happened on the screen, and then she saw herself and Owen, running along the main road to the junction and pausing briefly before moving over to Ianto.

She remembered the panic that had filled her as the young man failed to respond to their calls. They had split up: Tosh staying with the subdued Weevils in case anyone stumbled across them, Jack following the path that Ianto had taken through the estate, whilst Owen and Gwen circled around to where he should have appeared. At the corner they had paused, debating which way to go, and Owen had spotted Ianto in the dim lighting of the side street.

Alarm struck Gwen as they moved over to him, glancing about cautiously for any sign of trouble. They were sure that all the Weevils had been accounted for, but she'd kept her gun out just in case as Owen crouched down to check Ianto over.

Back in the boardroom, Gwen shivered, remembering the blood that had seemed to entirely cover him, though it was merely the work of the wet weather and the dark street that had made it appear so.

Tapping a button on the screen's controls, she called up another unclear image. A different camera near the warren of deserted streets had caught sight of the car as it exited the run down industrial estate. It didn't tell her much more about the incident, but it did provide her with a good view of the rear of the car. She played through the limited choice of shots, zooming in to find the best angle and then printing off the resulting image of the car's number plate.

Gwen was definitely more comfortable studying hard copies. She was sure she could see more in them than on the bright monitor, but even with the paper pressed up to her nose, she could only make out half of the registration number.

Seeing a figure pass by the open door, Gwen called out. "Tosh! Come tell me what you think this says. I've got as far as W-A-0-3 but I can't tell if the next letter is an 'N' or an 'M'. Or an 'H'."

Toshiko joined her with a helpful smile on her face and leaned over to look at the image. She took her time thinking about it, then straightened, leaving Gwen free to press it back to her nose. "What do you think?" Gwen asked, squinting at the blurred symbols. Tosh didn't respond and Gwen looked up curiously, finding the other woman staring at her in shock.

"Gwen?" Tosh said, only she wasn't speaking, just moving her lips and Gwen's own eyes widened with instant realisation.

"Oh, no. Tosh, tell me you're joking. Please tell me you're joking!"

Torchwood's technical expert shook her head, lips moving silently as she continued to talk, regardless of the fact that it was a pointless gesture.

Gwen groaned, grabbed Tosh's wrist and hauled her out of the boardroom, casting the printout aside without caring where it landed.

"Jack!" she called out the moment they reached the centre of the Hub. "Jack, get out here, I've got a BIG problem!"

But Jack was already out of his office, standing with Owen and Ianto on either side of him. She had clearly interrupted a conversation between the three men – well, between two of them at least – but she didn't care. Instead she dragged Tosh right up to them.

"Really? I bet I can beat it," Jack challenged, joking in spite of the hard look of concern in his eyes.

"Tosh can't speak," Gwen blurted out, ignoring him. She pushed the other woman in front of her, presenting her to the rest of the team as though they needed reminding who Tosh was.

The men stared as Tosh nodded at them, mouth moving as she continued to try to speak.  
A moment of silent bewilderment passed before everyone turned towards Ianto, who was standing in the doorway to the office, looking as confused as the rest of them. He shrugged helplessly.

Owen groaned. "Well, that's just fantastic, isn't it?" he asked no one in particular. "Right, then, we'd better get everyone tested for..." He hesitated. "Everything."

* * *

"Okay, Jack, if you know of some alien race that intends to take over the Earth by inflicting everyone with a severe case of laryngitis, you'd better tell me now." Owen fixed the Captain with a searching look. "Before you can't tell me at all."

"Does that mean we've all got it?"

"Got it?" Owen rounded on Gwen. "I don't even know what _it_ is! I was happy to accept that Ianto had flipped out after his accident, but there's no way Tosh just turned around this evening and decided she was going to jump on the bloody silent bandwagon!"

Ianto began to scribble something frantically on a pad resting on Jack's desk. The Captain leaned forward to read what he was writing and then reached out to take the pen from between the younger man's fingers. Ianto glanced at him in quiet enquiry, unconsciously bending away from the other so they wouldn't inadvertently touch.

"I don't know where you learnt that word, Ianto Jones, but I don't think using it to describe your doctor is a wise idea right now."

Owen swung around from glaring at Gwen to fix cold eyes on Ianto. "What did he say?"

"Nothing," Jack told him with an innocent smile. "And no, I'm not aware of any aliens who attack through the voice. I take it this means our blood tests came back normal as well?"

"Normal as normal can be," agreed Owen. "Even your sample."

"And Ianto's new scans, they show no changes either?"

Gwen looked up. "Is this the other problem you were talking about?" she directed towards Jack, whilst looking at Ianto.

The young man was standing in his usual place beside Jack, whilst the others faced them across the desk. It was an arrangement that the team often unconsciously fell into: Jack and Ianto on one side of the room, Gwen, Tosh and Owen on the other. It showed through in their work as well, Jack knew, where Ianto would concur with him more frequently than the other three.

He had noticed the looks upon the others' faces when that kind of situation arose, but they were wrong to assume that Ianto's allegiance was purely due to his relationship with the Captain. Jack was well aware that it was Ianto's faith in him that provoked such loyalty and he was always rather awed by that depth of trust. Apparently years of shady work and an almost constantly changing cycle of co-workers had made him come to expect more suspicion than confidence to be directed towards him.

Unfortunately, where Ianto used to radiate trust even in the way he stood close by the Captain's side, he now projected only tense caution; a full step further away from Jack than normal and his gaze directed pensively at the floor.

"Yes, it is," said Jack eventually. "It seems that Ianto has developed a very specific type of allergy."

"Oh!" Gwen said, surprise colouring her tone before she frowned in confusion. "Wait, what?"

"Apparently Ianto doesn't like me anymore." Jack could feel the weight of Ianto's eyes on him as his joke fell flat. "Every time I touch him it causes him to feel pain," he finished seriously, eyes tightening at his own words.

"Your _touch_ hurts him?" Gwen looked over at Ianto. "What about us?"

"Owen's already tried and he's fine," Jack said. "You're next."

Ianto stepped forward then, holding out his hand to Gwen. She took it hesitantly between her own palms, watching his face closely for a reaction. He smiled at her and shook his head and she squeezed his hand in relief.

Releasing him, Gwen turned to Jack and held out a hand to him. His fingers closed around her own and she stared intently into his eyes, the experiment forgotten briefly as she revelled in the feel of his warm skin.

Jack let go of her hand and glanced across at Ianto, finding the other man watching him but failing to see jealousy in Ianto's controlled features, not even in his blue gaze. Jack smiled faintly, wondering why he worried about such things when Ianto had never shown any kind of misunderstanding over their arrangement.

Looking back to Gwen, he found that the emotions on her face were so mixed that they actually conflicted. She was worried about Ianto and Tosh, that was clear enough, but she also wore the look she often adopted at any hint of Jack and Ianto's 'relationship'; the look that combined basal intrigue with something very much like envy.

Jack had grown accustomed to seeing hidden emotions within the expressions of other people and he had easily learnt to read Gwen. It sometimes troubled him that a number of his own feelings were reflected back in her eyes, but it couldn't be helped. They could _not_ be allowed to develop into anything more than that which they were already.

"How could something so specific hurt him?" she asked, shaking herself from her distracted silence.

Owen shrugged. "We don't know for sure that it's limited to just Jack. But at the moment he's the only thing Ianto can't touch." He paused and pressed his lips together into a thin line. "There've been no changes to Ianto's scans or X-rays, but considering this development came out of nowhere, he might develop sensitivity to other people or objects without warning."

Ianto's eyebrows shot up at that idea but gave no other indication of what he was thinking.

Beneath the calm exterior, the Captain knew that being unable to speak was troubling Ianto. Despite his quiet nature and the inclination to allow others to dominate a conversation until he felt something needed to be said, Jack knew that Ianto was far more articulate than others gave him credit for. He was an observer, one who absorbed every piece of information and tucked it away until it was required. At work he let the others take the lead, because they had been employed to do so. He, in contrast, was there for an entirely different reason, and it did not include attempting to take charge.

Outside of the Hub, or outside of usual operating hours at least, Ianto could talk up a storm; debating with the utmost argumentative skills, which was a trait that Jack found very enjoyable indeed. There was nothing quite like a heated discussion to get the blood pumping and ultimately force Jack to find another use for that mobile mouth.

But his mind was drifting yet again and he forced himself to suppress the delicious memories of their oral contests.

"We can test that possibility as we go along," he said, lifting a book from his desk and holding it up for Ianto. The younger man touched it and shrugged, clearly untroubled by the contact, and Jack dropped it back onto the cluttered surface. "Right, that was easy enough, but I think you'd better start touching everything in sight, just to make sure. Including yourself." He fixed a thoughtful look onto his face. "Your clothes aren't starting to hurt you, are they?"

Ianto rolled his eyes but his lips curled up into a reluctant smile. He leaned forward to reach his notepad and Jack read aloud his message for the benefit of the others. "Get back to the subject." He pulled a face, ripped out the page, screwed it up into a tight ball and threw it in the general direction of the bin. "Right, enough playing around, I think we should get back to the subject, don't you?"

Jack knew perfectly well that if Ianto had been able to speak he would have grumbled something offensive, but instead there was only silence as the younger man bent down behind him to tidy away the discarded ball of paper. "Owen, I think you'd better look into any other tests that might help us out here. I know you've done everything you can already, but perhaps there's something you haven't considered worth attempting, something completely out of the left field."

Owen didn't seem too impressed by the suggestion but he didn't argue. "I suppose I could-"

"Good!" Jack interrupted, before he could dive into an explanation. "Do that. Now, Tosh...where _is_ Tosh?"

Gwen pointed a thumb back over her shoulder towards the open door. "She's out there."

"Well that's-" He broke off as an alarm wailed its way through the Hub. The four dashed from the office, making straight for Toshiko's workstation.

"What's going on?" Gwen asked, hurrying to the other woman's side and peering at the monitors. The familiar displays of Rift activity showed a large spike of energy – still occurring – whilst another program swiftly homed in on the location of the surge.

"You know," Owen said, his voice curiously upbeat, "I was just thinking it was about time we added another problem to the list. And look! Lo and behold, another bloody problem."

* * *


	6. Chapter 6

* * *

The SUV blasted its way through the sparse late-night traffic, heading towards the outskirts of the city with great urgency. Only Jack and Gwen were inside and they were eager to deal with the latest issue quickly before returning to their colleagues back at the Hub.

With the new developments concerning Tosh's loss of speech and Ianto's strange reaction to Jack, all involved had decided it was best if the pair remained behind in case anything else happened to them. Owen had also stayed to continue his latest round of tests and to act as their voice should Jack and Gwen need assistance. He had, however, complained profusely at the likelihood of being the next to catch whatever the others were afflicted with.

"Another five minutes," said Gwen, for the benefit of those listening through the comms. "It seems to be centred on a residential street, so we might be dealing with witnesses or casualties. Or both." She retrieved her phone from inside her jacket. "The police haven't been contacted yet, but we should get them there to help deal with the locals."

"No," Jack said, one hand leaving the wheel in order to stop her from dialling. "If no one else has called them, there must be a reason."

"But the size of that energy surge...something big had to have come through."

"Maybe, but I don't want to shake everybody up for no reason. If there is anything going on, we'll decide when we get there whether to call them in or not."

"You don't think we'll find anything?" Gwen asked, studying his profile as he concentrated on the road.

"We didn't find anything the last time, or the time before, and I don't think we should go stirring everybody else up until we know something more concrete. Tosh, have you found out anything about the spike yet?"

There was a pause and then Owen's voice answered him. "She says there's nothing she can tell from the current readings but she's got a few more ideas, something about writing a new algorithm or something. I can't be bothered to read the entire essay she's writing to explain it to me. There's still no sign of the residents kicking up a fuss, by the way, which means they're either oblivious to what's happening or they're incapable of calling for help."

"Hmm," Jack responded, noncommittally.

Gwen knew that tone. "Jack? What are you thinking?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. Nothing, I hope."

"Talk to me, Jack," she pressed but he refused to answer, focusing on driving instead.

The next few minutes passed in silence until the scanner in her lap beeped at their proximity to the Rift's latest release of energy. Jack brought the SUV to a sharp halt, throwing Gwen off balance as she leapt from the rocking vehicle. She looked around, eyes sweeping swiftly over the quiet street.

The area was lit by the usual streetlamps and the air held a chill, early-morning freshness that Gwen had always enjoyed. She drew in a deep breath, turning on the spot to examine the lines of neatly parked cars on either side of the road and the dark windows of each and every house. "Okay," she said, body tensed for action. "I'm not seeing anything."

"Me neither," agreed Jack, taking a few steps further away from the vehicle. He cocked his head, listening to the sound of distant motorway traffic and the rustle of a slight breeze moving through foliage. "There's nothing here."

Gwen lifted the scanner Tosh had given her and tapped at the screen. "It says we're right on top of it."

They both automatically looked down at the ground, then back up at each other. Jack scowled darkly. "No. This isn't right. There's nothing here," he repeated.

"Owen?" Gwen called into the comms. "Tosh needs to check the readings again. We're in the wrong place."

She received no reply and looked over to meet Jack's eyes. "Owen?" she said again. "Have you lost your voice as well?" She realised how stupid her question sounded and forced a laugh. "If you have, let us know somehow. Make a noise, send a rude text, anything."

The only response she received was silence.

Jack growled loudly, making her jump in alarm. "Get in the car," he commanded, climbing back behind the wheel.

"But what about the energy signature?" she asked, hovering warily by the open door.

"Just get in the car, Gwen," the Captain barked.

* * *

There came a burst of static and then a loud electronic squeal that caused Owen to try to flinch away from the receiver in his ear. Snatching the device from his head, he held it at arm's length and glared at it. "What the hell was that?" he asked. "Tosh? What's wrong with this thing?"

Toshiko said nothing, her attention fixed on her monitors and her fingers flying across the keyboard at great speed.

"Tosh?" Owen asked again impatiently. He took a step towards her, frustrated that she was ignoring him, and noticed the alert flashing on one of the screens. "Shit! Tosh! There's a huge spike of energy coming from the lower levels." He grabbed her shoulder and leaned closer to read the details. "Why didn't the alarm go off? Why didn't you tell me about this?!"

She continued to ignore him, still typing rapidly. When he tried to turn her around to look at him, he was stopped by a hand upon his own shoulder, spinning him until he was face to face with Ianto. The younger man gave him a brief and humourless smile before jabbing a taser into his chest and pulling the trigger.

* * *

Ianto frowned as he fixed restraints around Owen's wrists and ankles. He didn't want to be doing it, he knew very well that he _shouldn't_ be doing it, but he just couldn't stop himself. He stood and waited for Tosh to finish inputting commands into her computer.

She rejoined him at the lift in the middle of the room, where she had earlier helped Ianto carry Owen, and sat down on the thick square of stone to prop the unconscious man up against her back. Once Tosh was in place, Ianto restrained her as well, his aching body ignoring the silent clamouring of his mind.

Lifting the taser again, he struck his unresisting colleague in the side. She jerked violently and he reached out to steady her, arranging her limbs so she wouldn't be hurt going through the hole above them. Finished, Ianto stepped back and activated the controls, watching until the stone was in place and secure. A moment later he was back at Tosh's workstation, activating a full lockdown of the Hub. He tried valiantly not to click 'yes' when the question 'Are you sure?' appeared on the screen but his fingers simply wouldn't comply.

The main lights went out whilst everything clanged shut, then the secondary phase of Toshiko's programming began and the lighting gradually flickered on again. Ianto's sure steps never failed, even in the darkness, his knowledge of the Hub so deeply ingrained in his subconscious that he could have found his way around blind if necessary.

Down in a section of the lower cells, Ianto stopped, looking around at the empty row of chambers. The air was musty, this particular level having gone unused for as long as he could remember, and it tickled the back of his throat as he stood there doing nothing and wondering what he was waiting for.

A few minutes passed and then Ianto felt the still air inexplicably begin to move. He turned his head towards the end of the short passage, his skin tingling and the short hairs at the back of his neck lifting with the charged atmosphere. He tasted bile as the walls bent in on themselves but he couldn't move to back away to safety and was thus extremely close by when the fabric of reality tore itself open and the figure of a man appeared suddenly before him.

The newcomer had his back to Ianto, who was far too busy focusing on breathing instead of looking, but the moment the stranger spoke, Ianto felt his stomach drop in sharp recognition.

"Where the bloody hell have you brought me n-?!" the man began to demand, though he stopped abruptly, having apparently figured out the answer for himself.

"Well, bugger me," Captain John Hart murmured, peering into the vacant cells beside him. "This is a bit of a turn up for the books."

* * *


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: A big thanks to everyone who's read and reviewed so far! I hope you're enjoying The Uninvited, there's a LOT more to come!

* * *

Jack abandoned the SUV as close as he could to the tourist office, without actually driving through the pedestrian zone straight up to the door. He ran full pelt along the waterfront towards the entrance, with Gwen close on his heels and a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"What is it, Jack?" Gwen called breathlessly from behind. "What's going on?"

He shook his head, unable to give her an answer; he didn't have anything more than gut instinct telling him something had gone wrong. His head was buzzing, as though there was something lingering at the edge of his mind, something in the air that felt familiar, but he hadn't a clue as to what it could be.

The door to the office was locked and he bounced off it with a growl of annoyance. Gwen produced a key but Jack already knew it would be no good. He wasn't sure _how_ he knew, but he did. Gwen struggled for a minute with the lock whilst Jack stared back the way they had come, scowling unhappily.

"Forget it," he declared abruptly. "Let's try the lift." And he started off again up the nearby steps to the Plass.

The clouded sky had lightened on the way back from the edge of the city, the long and disturbing night at last beginning to ease into dawn. The Plass was still lit from various sources, however, and distorted shadows flowed around the Captain as he hurried across the large open arena.

Gaining on the water tower, he spotted the two figures lying entangled on the ground, slumping to one side like a couple in a drunken embrace. Knowing perfectly well that wouldn't be the case, not on that particular step, Jack increased his pace even further.

Bleary eyes looked up at him as he crouched beside Owen.

"Jack," the doctor said with a relieved sigh. "Thank God. Get these things off me." He held up his hands and Jack swore viciously, hating that his concerns had been proven well founded.

"What happened?" he demanded, adjusting the controls on his wrist strap to unlock the coded restraints. The advanced tech took only seconds to determine the right combination and Owen cast aside the cuffs in disgust.

"Something's wrong with Ianto and Tosh, and I don't just mean their voices. When the comms went down I caught Tosh ignoring an alert for Rift activity within the Hub itself, but before I could do anything Ianto jumped me." He clenched his jaw, unhappy with his failure. "Next thing I know I'm staring at my reflection in that thing," he nodded towards the tower, "Tosh is sprawled across my back and you're running towards me like the world is about to end. Again."

Jack moved over to the unconscious woman, easing her away from Owen and checking her pulse. Gwen appeared at his side, helping Owen rise unsteadily to his feet before ducking down to tug helplessly at Tosh's restraints. "Jack, unlock these."

"No!" Owen objected. "She's being controlled by something."

"Then why is she tied up out here and not in the Hub?" Gwen countered. She patted the side of Tosh's face gently. "Tosh? Come on, darling, wake up, talk to us."

"Is Ianto still inside?" Jack asked, looking up at the other man.

Owen, who was examining his chest for contact wounds from the taser, shrugged absently. "I'd say so, unless he's able to tie himself up and throw himself out the door." He raised an eyebrow in question. "Tell us, Captain, does he have that talent?"

Jack ignored him and unlocked the cuffs around Tosh's wrists and ankles. She stirred in Gwen's arms and then, much to their surprise, she groaned weakly.

"Oh, my head," she said, eyes squeezed shut against the pain.

"Tosh?" said Gwen, alarmed.

Dark eyes blinked at her sleepily. "Gwen? What's going on?" She looked around, clearly surprised to find herself outside, then her gaze snapped back to the other woman's. "I can speak!"

Gwen smiled. "Yes, you can. Do you remember what happened?"

Tosh frowned, accepting Jack's hand to stand up and then swaying as she tried to regain her balance. "No, I..." she began before cutting herself off, "wait, yes. Yes, I do. Oh God, I created that alert to get you out of the Hub." She gasped, looking to Jack in bewilderment. "I'm so sorry, Jack. I didn't want to do it but I just couldn't stop myself."

"It's okay," Jack reassured her. "But we can't get into the Hub. Do you know what you did to the security systems? Or anything else you might have done down there?"

"Well, it didn't control me for long," Tosh said thoughtfully. "I remember setting the parameters for a lockdown and beginning a modified scan of Rift activity, but I don't think she made me do anything else before Ianto tied me up with Owen."

There was a moment of silence before Gwen finally asked what they were all thinking.

"_She?_"

Tosh nodded. "Yes, 'she'. At first I didn't know why I couldn't control my body, or why I was setting up those programs, but then I heard someone talking to me, even though there was nobody else around. She explained that she wasn't actually in the Hub, but that she could create telepathic links over great distances and use them to control people like Ianto and I." She frowned, thinking back. "I'm not sure why, but she told me her name and I kind of got the impression that she only told me so I would tell _you_, Jack."

"What was it?"

"Lurrelia, I think."

Jack shrugged. "I don't recognise it. Did she hint at what she wanted in the Hub?"

"No. But I think it had something to do with the surge of energy Owen noticed building down in the cells. She might have needed to be in the Hub because she was waiting for it to happen, I don't know. All I can be sure of is that she was still in control of Ianto when I let him stun me."

Owen sighed loudly. "Great, so something's happening in the basement and Ianto's involved. Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"Shut up, Owen," Gwen said, glaring at him. "It could have been any of us."

"It would have to have been an engineered event," Jack announced, deciding to ignore Owen's remark. "The Rift doesn't just open up on its own inside the Hub, we've got too many obstructions in place to stop that from happening."

Tosh caught onto the direction of his thoughts. "So someone intentionally created the anomaly? Yes, of course they would, it was an opening after all." She realised everyone was staring at her and hurried to explain. "I remember seeing the readings whilst Lurrelia was controlling me. The energy was gathering slowly due to the restrictive barriers but it was definitely manifesting as an opening in the Rift."

"Which means what?" Owen asked. "She's taking delivery of some extraterrestrial mail-order?"

"Or she's sending something through it," Gwen said slowly.

"Like what?"

"Like Ianto, maybe?"

"Don't be stupid. It's more likely she's stealing all the alien things we've got down there."

Gwen shrugged. "It was just a suggestion."

"What could she possibly want with him, anyway?"

"Well, she did get into his head first."

Owen sneered at Gwen. "So he was the easiest target, so what?"

Jack growled, effectively bringing their childish argument to an abrupt halt. His attention had been upon his wrist strap, which was apparently still failing to activate the lift no matter what he pressed. "Have I ever mentioned just how much I hate people breaking into my house and touching my stuff?" He didn't wait for a response. "Well, I hate people taking my staff for joyrides even more. We have to get in there right away. Ideas?"

No one said anything, though Owen and Gwen looked at Tosh expectantly, who was deep in thought.

"Obviously the lockdown is meant to be impenetrable," she began slowly.

"But there are ways of getting in again, right?" pressed an anxious Gwen. "I know we've been locked in before, but has this ever happened?"

"You mean being locked out of our own secret base?" Owen asked wryly. "Yeah that's happened before. Locked in, locked out, frankly I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often."

"I'll need some things from the SUV," Tosh announced, her expression having shifted from pensive to determined.

* * *

John Hart turned, examining his surroundings with a relaxed air until he caught sight of Ianto standing behind him. He swayed back in surprise, hands dropping immediately to rest upon the weapons slung low on his hips.

"Eye-Candy!" he exclaimed in a mixture of surprise and amusement. He looked at Ianto warily, clearly a little confused by the fact that the young man was not only there, but had also failed to draw a weapon or call for back-up.

Locked inside his own mind, Ianto was swearing fluidly, willing his body to move, to make some sign that he wasn't as defenceless as he appeared.

The former Time Agent, however, had already decided that he was harmless and stalked forward intently, eyes narrowed in query. "Lurrelia? Is that you?"

Ianto frowned, confused, but then his mouth opened, lips moving ineffectively. Hart's own forehead creased at the lack of sound, but he did not dwell long on the matter, a grin spreading across his face. "I can't believe you chose Eye-Candy!" he said, laughing gleefully. "That is by far the best gift you have ever given me."

He said nothing else for a moment, head tilting to the side as though listening to a sound only he could hear, and then his smirk grew impossibly wider. "Oh, that is absolutely delicious!"

Hart leaned close, staring into Ianto's eyes. "I know you're in there Eye-Candy and I'd apologise for my dear friend's hijacking of your body, but really I can't imagine a situation I'd enjoy more." He gaze slid downwards and he licked his lips thoughtfully. "Well, actually there are quite a few I can think of, but all in good time. For now, your hitchhiker has something rather important to do."

Ianto moved then, turning around in order to lead the amused Captain upstairs into the centre of the Hub. Hart followed a few paces behind him and Ianto cringed inwardly at the knowledge he was being watched as he walked.

It was clear that whoever 'Lurrelia' was, they were the reason he had ceased to be in control of his limbs. They were probably also the cause of Toshiko's similar, if short-lived, disobedience. The revelation came as somewhat of a relief, after the past few hours of being unable to stop himself from hurting his colleagues and adjusting the Hub's internal systems. He had been terrified of what he might do next and had actually been glad that Tosh and Owen had been sent outside before he did anything worse to them.

And yet, having an explanation for his actions did nothing to resolve the fact that he was still under someone else's control. He had been attempting to reclaim command of his body since he had first realised there was a problem and knowing for sure that another being was involved made absolutely no difference at all.

Having passed the base of the water tower, Ianto found himself taking Hart into Jack's office and straight over to the safe. He groaned silently as his fingers worked to open the lock and he tried to think what the Time Agent and his 'friend' could possibly want from inside the vault.

He knew every single item that was stored there and yet, whilst there were many things that certain disreputable people would be all too happy to get their hands on, he couldn't begin to guess what Hart and the alien inside his head might want.

Unbidden, Ianto's fingers called up an object that had thus far been tagged as unknown, regardless of the numerous tests that had been performed upon it. It was a thin length of some unearthly material, flexible and yet metallic, with a complex design etched into its worn and scratched surface. It produced a trace amount of radiation similar to the energy found within the Rift, which was the only reason they had kept it sealed inside the safe, just in case it had some relevance they had yet to discover.

Clearly it did, as Hart leaned close to Ianto to look over his shoulder. "Well, well, well. You're a lucky girl, aren't you? Who'd have thought one of those would turn up here?"

Ianto frowned and his confusion must have been obvious. "It's like listening to half a conversation, isn't it?" Hart asked the young man knowingly. "She's telepathic, you see. That's how she got inside your head and how she's speaking to me without you hearing." Hart moved closer, pressing himself against Ianto's back. "If she wanted to, she could open up a link between our minds and I would be able to hear your thoughts too." A hand slid around Ianto's side, stroking up and over his chest. "I bet that would quite an experience."

Ianto cursed inventively inside his own head, wishing desperately that he could move away from the unwanted touch. If there was some telepathic being in his head, he was going to make sure she knew precisely what he thought of both her and Hart's actions.

But the other man removed his hand almost immediately, reaching out to take the metal strip between his own fingers. He bent it around Ianto's left wrist, which the Welshman had unwillingly lifted to aid the process. It was flexible enough to create a complete circle, the ends touching and, inexplicably, melding together until the seam was no longer visible.

Even in his current situation Ianto couldn't help but marvel as he watched the metal edges joining. It fitted neatly against his skin as well, not too tight to pinch or too loose to move, as though it had been purposely made for him. But what on Earth _was_ it?

"It's a kind of anchor," Hart explained in a cheerful voice, guessing at Ianto's thoughts. At least Ianto hoped he was only guessing, because of all the people he wouldn't want to root around in his head, Captain John Hart was right there at the top of the list. "It's something to help people hone their psychic abilities. Some people can touch certain minds depending on their proximity or relation but if they stray too far they can become lost, so the bands are used to help lead them back to their own bodies."

It made a vague kind of sense that Ianto had come to expect since joining Torchwood, but it didn't explain why it was on _his_ wrist.

"Because," Hart said, his breath ghosting over Ianto's ear, "her body is so far away that she needs the strength of two bands to lead her mind back to it. She's already got one with her body and now this one here completes the set."

Ianto's head was beginning to hurt. Whether Hart was telling the truth or not, the young man was far more alarmed by the fact that the other was still guessing his thoughts with suspicious precision.

The Captain chuckled, hands returning to Ianto's chest, arms encircling him from behind. "We're terribly close, Lurrelia and I, and she is _very_ generous when she knows there's something I want." Another quiet laugh stirred the hair at the back of Ianto's neck. "She took my mention of the link as a hint and," he shrugged, "here we are. Oh, but it only goes one way, in case you were wondering."

Ianto cringed, trying not to think of anything and failing miserably. It seemed he couldn't help but note the warmth of Hart's hands as they twisted their way inside his suit jacket, his heartbeat rising with apprehension, but then the unwelcome fingers knocked against his broken arm and the pain of the disturbance swiftly altered the subject of his thoughts as he tensed, mouth open in a silent gasp.

The hands vanished from his chest and Ianto span around to face the other man. "Sorry," Hart said, a surprisingly contrite look upon his face, but Ianto wasn't listening. Instead he was desperately trying not to think about the brief split-second of control he had regained over his body, precisely when the unexpected agony had swept through him.

Of course, desperately not thinking about something meant having to push something else into the subsequent gap and Ianto filled his mind with the metal band on his wrist and the alien who was apparently going to be travelling through it.

Captain Hart's guilt melted away at the Welshman's thoughts and the cocky grin reappeared. "If you're trying to stop yourself thinking about me, then you're wasting your time." He leaned closer and tapped a finger against Ianto's temple. "I know I saw pleasure in there, why not just admit it?"

Ianto willed an image of the band's etching into his mind.

"Okay," Hart said. "I understand. You want Lurrelia out of your head, fair enough, but once she's sorted, I'm going to have all the time in the world to test your resolve." He licked his lips and grinned. "Then we'll see how strong you are."


	8. Chapter 8

* * *

Owen gaped up at the shining reflection of the sky. "That?" he said again, just in case the others hadn't heard him the first time. "Your big idea is to go through that?"

Tosh smiled patiently. "Yes, Owen, that. It's the quickest way I can get us in."

"But..." Gwen frowned, searching for the right words. "But it's the _Rift_, isn't it?"

"It's one end of the Rift," the other woman agreed absently, "but even though the structure helps fix it in place, it isn't actually a part of the Rift itself."

"So, going inside the water tower isn't like going into the Rift?"

"There's no reason to think it'll be dangerous whilst the Rift is dormant," Tosh said, still distracted by the tangle of wires surrounding her. She had shown no restraint in ripping out the various consoles and scanners from the SUV, the challenge of creating something entirely different from them inspiring her almost as much as the desire to get back inside the Hub.

Owen cleared his throat. "'No reason to _think_ it'll be dangerous...'" He looked around. "Anyone else not finding that statement very reassuring?"

Jack appeared from behind the tower, around which he had been stalking ever since Tosh had begun infiltrating the Hub's security system. He glanced at the clouded sky, the light of the morning revealing just how much time had passed. "Tosh, tell me we're going to get in there soon. I'd rather not have an audience when I start vandalising this thing."

"Five more minutes," Tosh replied, concentrating on the scavenged keyboard and monitor. "No, wait, I'm done." She turned the screen around so the others could see. On it there was a wire-frame model of the water tower, thick and thin lines representing the struts and supports that held everything together; a three-dimensional blueprint showing the tower both above and below the ground. "Okay. There's a gap here, between the outer lining of panels and the inner structure, which should be safe enough to climb through."

"SHOULD be safe?!" Owen spluttered.

"So long as we stay within this area, everything should be fine. However, I would suggest only travelling a short distance within the tower itself, just in case," Tosh went on, ignoring Owen. "I'm going to have to manually adjust the disruption field every few minutes in order to keep the sensors from tracking us, meaning we'll have to stop a few times."

Jack nodded. "Right, two things. Firstly, Tosh, I knew there was a reason why I loved you. And secondly, I'm going in alone, so you can give the sensors your full attention from up here."

Gwen bristled at the Captain's announcement. "You aren't going in there on your own, Jack."

"I'm not going to argue about this, Gwen," he countered. "If Tosh is wrong about the tower I don't want any of you near it."

She opened her mouth to protest but the glare she received was enough to make her falter. Jack was angry, really angry, and there was only so much more he would take.

Satisfied that Gwen was going to hold her tongue, Jack picked up one of the tools Tosh had laid out for him. Owen followed him to the tower.

"To your left," Tosh told them and they moved over to the next mirrored rectangle. Taking each side, the two men slipped crowbars into the edges of the wet panel, jiggling the metal until there was a gap large enough to slip their fingers into. Gwen hovered close by, making faces as she alternated between moving forward to help and rearing back every time the sheet wobbled.

Her caution proved accurate as the panel of stainless steel slipped suddenly from its fixings and tumbled to the ground. The crash rang out, echoing impossibly loud around the deserted Plass, and everybody froze until the final reverberation had died out.

Owen and Gwen stepped over to stick their heads through the tumbling water and peered down into the hole. Faint illumination from the increasing daylight highlighted a web of girders and thick cables, encircling the core of the tower which was hidden from view by a skin of dull metal plates.

"There isn't much room," Owen observed, pulling back and shaking his head, sending water flying over the others.

Gwen automatically turned away from him, though she already looked as though she had just taken a bath fully clothed. "Owen!"

"I don't need much room," Jack said, taking a look for himself and leaned back to wipe his face. "I'm not planning to hold a party in there."

"Here," Tosh said, handing the Captain a mobile phone, already on call to her own, and a Bluetooth earpiece. "The main comms are still out so we're back to basics." She gave the others their headsets and slipped another over her ear.

Jack pocketed the phone and fixed his earpiece into place. "Okay, can you hear me?"

The other three nodded, the fact he was standing only two paces away from them making it impossible to respond otherwise. Jack seemed to realise the vanity of his question but shrugged it off with a grin and climbed through the hole they had made. Owen handed him a coil of rope, which he hooked over his shoulder.

"Tosh?" Jack prompted, before clamping a torch between his teeth and looking down. The beam of light bounced off a geometric tangle of metal.

"Hang on." She tapped at the keyboard. "Right, you're clear to go."

Jack began to descend, climbing nimbly down the supports. Gwen and Owen moved forward again to watch his descent whilst Tosh tracked his progress on her glowing screen. After about fifteen minutes, moving only when Tosh told him to, the Captain stopped, hooked one arm around an upright pole and took the torch in his free hand.

"I'm at the partition, Tosh," he said, scanning the blockage beneath him. The bulkhead at his feet was a foot-thick barrier between the Hub and the outside world; another defensive system to keep anyone from simply careening through the water tower and falling down into the underground base.

"You're going to have to go through quickly, Jack," Tosh's voice told him apologetically. "I can open the seam directly below you, but I won't be able to hold it for long."

"How long?" Jack asked, not liking her tone.

There was a hesitation. "Not long," she said.

Huffing, Jack slipped his torch into a pocket and checked that everything else was secured. "I'm ready when you are," he called over the headset, but the sound of scraping metal drowned out his words.

"Now, Jack!" Tosh cried and he let go, dropping through the gap in the thick partition into unexplored darkness.

As his limbs flailed for something to grab hold of, the metal plating slammed back together again, having been apart for mere seconds, and the edge of his long coat was caught in the vice-like grip. Jack hung there for one incredibly tense minute, swinging violently from side to side before the heavy material ripped and he fell again, crashing onto a horizontal girder below.

The air whooshed out of his lungs as his chest took the full brunt of the collision but he ignored the pain, scrabbling desperately for purchase on the beam and heaving one leg over so he could lie flat on the narrow support.

A handful of clattering sounds echoed upwards and Jack lifted a hand to his head, finding the earpiece had been knocked off during the fall. Cursing, he rummaged in his pocket for the phone.

"I'm here, I'm here," he told the voices frantically calling his name. "I lost the Bluetooth."

"You're lucky you didn't lose your head!" Owen declared, sounding somewhat awed.

"If you had been a second slower..." added Gwen, unnecessarily.

"But I didn't and I wasn't," Jack wheezed into the mobile. He dug out his torch and shone it around his new surroundings. Everything appeared much the same as it had above the bulkhead, though there were perhaps a few more structural beams in this lower half of the tower. It would make climbing down easier, so long as he didn't fall again and impale himself somewhere rather more tender than his chest.

Tosh came back on the line. "You have to go down five more metres before you'll be level with the framework around the ceiling, but once you're out of the tower and on the scaffolding, you should be able to make your way down to the walkways without too much trouble."

Jack twisted in his uncomfortable position, trying to plan a way down before setting off again. "Okay," he said, rubbing at the bruise forming across his chest. "Five metres down and hopefully only a short leap across, because I gotta admit, it's been a while since I practised my gymnastics." He put away the torch. "At least not without netting of some sort."

"Jack, what you do in your private time is-" Owen broke off as a low rumble filled the air. "What the hell was that?"

The metal between Jack's legs began to shudder.

"Jack?" Gwen's voice cut in, the concern clear in her tone.

"Is that what I think it is?" asked Tosh, calm in spite of knowing full well what was happening.

"Yep," the Captain bit out, annoyed at the latest setback. "That would be the Rift Manipulator starting up. Right beneath me."

* * *

By the time Ianto's body had walked into the centre of the Hub, Captain Hart had already opened the panel in the base of the tower and was fiddling with the workings situated there. Ianto winced, recalling what had happened the last time the Rift had been forcibly opened and the horrible turn of events that followed. Granted, Jack had sprung back to life from both awful deaths, but it was hardly a time that Ianto remembered with much fondness. His own part in the betrayal against Jack was a wound from which he had yet to entirely heal.

Hart looked back, meeting his gaze with one of unexpected compassion, but then smiled brashly and the expression vanished as though it had never been there. "Don't fret, Eye-Candy, we've got an expert working on it this time. In fact, you'd better let her get started, unless you want a repeat of the last disaster you failed to stop."

Seething, Ianto could only watch from behind his own eyes as he walked over to Tosh's desk and started working at the controls there. A few minutes passed in silence, whilst Ianto's fingers moved swiftly and his mind attempted to distract them to no avail. Sooner than he expected, the being within him was finished and he stepped away stiffly.

"Come help me with this," the former Time Agent called out, shoulder deep in the complex machinery. Ianto walked over and did as the other instructed, ending up uncomfortably close to the leering man. "When this is all over," Hart began, grunting a little as he adjusted something that had stuck within the tower, "I'm going to teach you a few tricks even your precious Captain daren't show you. The kind that will ensure you'll never get enough of me."

Ianto couldn't respond in a very satisfying manner, though he was sure that his thoughts on the matter were heard by the other man. Hart grinned and licked his lips, a motion which Ianto found himself inexplicably watching with great interest. He became aware of the other's scent, similar to Jack's and yet different, individual to the younger Captain. His thoughts were slow and vague and with his mind not entirely under control all he could focus on was the warmth of the body close by and the tongue that darted out to wet those lips once again.

Something clicked without warning under his blindly groping fingers and Ianto tensed in surprise. The Rift Manipulator whirred into life, and both men pulled their arms out of the way, Hart still grinning and Ianto looking right back without even a twitch of his features to reveal his internal discomfort.

"Okay!" Hart declared enthusiastically, rubbing his hands together. "Time to get started!"

Pain tore through Ianto and he curled in on himself, his left arm coming up to join his right against his chest whilst his legs gave way beneath him and he fell to the floor, his entire body shaking.

"Oh, right, forgot to mention," Hart sang out from where he stood over the young Welshman. "When there are two bands pulling together, it can hurt a little." He paused. "Or maybe a lot. I always get those two mixed up."

A loud explosion sounded from above and the air filled with spots of silver light. Alarms began to wail, a tormenting sound that battled against even the Rift Manipulator at full power.

Ianto's head twisted in order to look up and he caught sight of a dark figure sliding down the side of the tower, one hand wrapped around a length of rope that ended about ten foot from the ground. Before he could even register the fact that he recognised the newcomer, the shards of fractured metal ceased to be airborne and clattered down around the base of the tower.

Hart swore in surprise, attempting to flee the deadly rain but in his haste forgot that Ianto was behind him. He fell, straight onto Ianto and crushed the broken arm caught between them. The agony already coursing through Ianto doubled and he opened his mouth to cry out. A weak reedy sound escaped his throat and through the pain he realised what that meant. When Hart pushed himself up and stumbled away, Ianto rolled to his knees and grabbed his cast, aggravating his arm and managing to keep control of his body by making the pain constant.

He lurched to his feet and forced himself over to the workstation, twisting and squeezing his broken limb, barely noticing that the metal band on his wrist was burning even more ferociously than before. Clenching his jaw and trying to focus through the agony, Ianto punched in the commands that would interrupt the Manipulator and keep the Rift from fully opening.

The machinery stopped mid compression, the rhythmic whirring giving way to alarming silence, and Ianto collapsed back to the floor, chest heaving. He wrapped his fingers around his arm again, intent on staying in control whilst Captain Hart was on the loose, but struggled to find the energy to stand up once more.

A whirl of heavy material swept across Ianto's face as Jack leapt over his prone body, pouncing upon the fleeing Hart.

"What the HELL are you doing here?!" Jack roared at the former Time Agent, shaking him so violently that his head slammed against the concrete floor.

"Jack!" Ianto gasped, rolling onto his stomach and reaching out his free hand towards the Captain. "Jack, don't!"

The struggling pair froze; Jack gawking back over his shoulder at Ianto's unexpected – in more than one way – declaration and Hart grinning in pleasant surprise from beneath Jack.

"Oh I _knew_ you liked me, Eye-Candy," he crowed, apparently untroubled by Jack's death grip around his throat.

Jack was looking at him, surprised by his protest, but Ianto ignored him, glaring instead at Hart with fury in his eyes. "Don't," he said again, breathing harshly through gritted teeth. "I want to kill him myself."

* * *


	9. Chapter 9

* * *

After a whirlwind of activity following the unlocking of the Hub, the imprisonment of Captain Hart and the reinstatement of the security systems, Ianto found himself in the autopsy bay again, gaze distant as Owen fixed him up. Again.

The doctor turned Ianto's left hand over, examining the band around his wrist. Whatever its purpose, whatever it had done, its activation had caused the metal to burn into the flesh of his arm. The skin surrounding it was raw and weeping and, even though Owen had given him a strong analgesic, it continued to ache persistently.

It also throbbed completely out of synch with his right arm, which was not helping Ianto's headache at all.

"I really don't know where to start," Owen admitted, glancing towards where Jack was leaning against the wall, arms folded over his chest. The Captain's forehead was deeply creased, his expression dark and foreboding. "There isn't a seam where the ends used to be and if we start cutting randomly it might..." He grimaced. "Okay, I don't know what it might do. We should have tried harder to figure out what this thing was when we first found it."

"Hindsight's a fine thing," Ianto muttered, his eyes still unfocused.

"Right," Owen agreed. He looked to Jack again with faint concern in his eyes as he applied cream to Ianto's wrist and wrapped a bandage around the scorched skin. "Perhaps we should talk to your mate about this band. The last thing I want to do is cut into in and set off something that does even more damage to his arm."

Jack's lip curled up into a sneer. "I'd really rather not give John any more leverage," he said angrily.

"I don't think we've got any other option, Jack."

"Well, talk to me when you're _sure_ we don't have any other option and then I'll consider it."

Owen pursed his lips together, frustrated by the Captain's reticence. "Fine. I'll see if Tosh has figured out anything new about it."

Jack nodded, waiting until Owen had disappeared before stepping forward to look down at the seated Welshman. "You okay?" he asked.

Ianto shrugged. "I think I need a holiday, Sir," he told the older man, his tone deadpan.

"No holidays in Torchwood," Jack retorted immediately, hoping to drag a smile from Ianto and almost sighing with relief when he succeeded. "Do you want to talk about what happened?" he asked.

"Which part?"

"Let's skip to John turning up," Jack said, frown reforming. "What's his role in this?"

Ianto rubbed at his eyes. "Lurrelia brought him here," he said, then glanced up in apology. "Sorry, the being that was controlling me is apparently called Lurrelia."

"Tosh told us the same thing. Go on."

"He came through down in the cells, shortly after I, uh, sent Tosh and Owen outside. He seemed genuinely surprised to find himself here, so I assume he wasn't in on the entire plan, but he knew exactly what to do once he got started." The young man bit his lip in thought. "Did Tosh tell you about Lurrelia being separated from her body?"

Jack nodded. "Whilst she was rerouting the security system she explained everything that Lurrelia let her see whilst in her mind. She's from a race of beings called the Perscalla-Fam. I encountered them once a long time ago, but it seems in the interim they've developed rather drastically."

"Which is why you didn't recognise this?" Ianto guessed, nodded at his bound wrist.

"The markings aren't even similar to those the Fam used," Jack told him. "I think another race created it, but this Lurrelia happened to know what it could do. I only wish we'd known ourselves so we could have destroyed it before all this happened."

"Knowing wouldn't have made a difference," said Ianto. "First we would've tried to use it, then we'd have kept it in the archives when we failed, and Lurrelia would still have been able to manipulate me in order to get hold of it."

"But where does John come into it all?" Jack's features remained grim at the mention of Hart's involvement and Ianto did not envy the younger Captain when it came time to question him.

"If I had to guess, I would say he was brought here to act as Lurrelia's hands until she returned to her body."

"Surely _you_ were acting as her hands," Jack pointed out.

"Then maybe he had information she needed instead," Ianto suggested with a shrug.

Jack blew out a long breath. "There's really only one person who can tell us." He did not seem to enjoy having to admit to that fact. "Unless that unwanted guest of ours is still inside your head?"

Ianto frowned a little at the suspiciously hopeful tone of his voice. "I'm pretty sure she's gone. I am talking again, after all."

"A fact I'm very glad of." Jack smiled gently at him. "I missed our little chats." He inched forward and Ianto's eyes widened a fraction.

The younger man pushed himself to his feet, bringing himself level with Jack. After all that had happened, after feeling so helpless whilst Lurrelia had controlled his body, to have Jack joking with him again felt so normal that he couldn't help but smile. "Chats?" he repeated. "Do you mean those times when you'd ask for something and I'd reply 'Yes, Sir'?"

Jack chuckled briefly before turning serious once more. "It was difficult, wasn't it? Being unable to speak?"

"It was only for the day," Ianto said. "But yes, it was taxing at times." He wiggled the fingers of his left hand. "Of course it did give me the chance to discover that I can be fully ambidextrous if I practise enough."

Ianto noticed the glint in Jack's eyes and he had to bite back the triumphant smile at having put it there. Revealing his pleasure at the victory would end their game early and he didn't want that.

"Really?" Jack asked. "How much practise do you think you'd need?" He sidled even closer, until Ianto could feel the heat of his body. He closed his eyes, dragging in a deep breath and getting a lungful of the older man's unique scent.

"A lot," Ianto said with a casual shrug. He glanced towards the stairs that led up out of the sunken room. "In fact I think I'll go start now."

A low lustful noise rumbled from Jack's throat and without warning he lunged forward, capturing Ianto in a deliciously heated kiss. The younger man moaned lightly in pleasure as Jack slipped his hands around to press flat upon Ianto's back, mindful of the arm strapped up between them.

They parted their lips at the same time, synchronized by instinct, tongues sliding together without hesitation and they battled briefly for control, Ianto struggling to stay aware of who was doing what. Jack's hands slid up into Ianto's short hair and around to grasp the back of his head, pulling them closer until their bodies were flush against each other.

And then Ianto was doubled over, heaving in great wheezing breaths through gritted teeth.

"Ianto!" Jack cried, reaching out to rest one hand on his back whilst the other attempted to lift the young man's chin.

The contact made Ianto groan in anguish and he lurched away, holding out his hand to stop Jack from touching him again.

"Dammit," Jack muttered, realising what had happened. "It's me again, isn't it?"

Ianto couldn't respond; he was clinging onto the railing, forehead resting against the cold metal and his entire body quivering with tension.

"I'm sorry, Ianto. I thought you were okay now."

"So did I," he panted, finally unbending and turning around. His eyes were closed, eyelashes dark against cheeks drained of colour.

"Do you want me to get Owen?" Jack offered, but Ianto shook his head.

"Just give me a minute."

The Captain complied and fell silent, though Ianto could sense being watched closely as he got himself under control. When he opened his eyes again, they instantly met Jack's and he shuddered unintentionally.

"Are you all right?"

Ianto laughed bitterly. "I think I can safely say no." Jack glanced away and Ianto frowned to see guilt in the other man's expression. "It's not your fault," he said firmly. Jack gave him a knowing look and Ianto shrugged, unwilling to take it back, whether it was true or not. "We should talk to John. He might know something about the side-effects of Lurrelia's control," Ianto went on, clearing his throat and adjusting the sling still holding his right arm motionless.

Jack didn't notice, or else didn't wish to make mention of it. "You should get some rest," he said. "In fact we all should, it's about a day past bedtime."

"Do you really think anyone's going to agree to that?" Ianto asked.

"Not at all. It seems I've done too good a job turning you all into workaholics." Jack backed away, gesturing grandly that Ianto should lead the way, his cheerful demeanour back in place and yet doing nothing to hide the fact that he was purposefully leaving a large gap between them.

The Welshman walked ahead of his lover, his thoughts twisting around and upon themselves. He felt nauseous with both the lingering effects of Jack's touch and the worry that it might be permanent.

And on top of that, he couldn't help but wonder at which point he had started thinking of the younger Time Agent as 'John'.

* * *

Michael Torvey stood in a slowly spreading puddle of milk. The carton lay crumpled at his feet where it had dropped a few seconds earlier, forgotten in his astonishment at seeing the impossible sight of figures appearing out of thin air right in front of him.

"What the fuck?" Michael said, glancing back over his shoulder in bewilderment. The pathway was empty, he was all alone, and the things standing five paces away looked like something out of a horror movie.

Unsure if he could believe his eyes, Michael stared openly at them. The woman closest to him seemed normal enough, save her entirely blank expression. She was short, elfin, with pale hair and skin and dark eyes that were empty and flat.

Arranged behind her were a cluster of creatures which reminded him of bears, big and well-muscled with short, dark fur. Disturbingly, they stood upright on their hind-legs, looking very much like misshapen men. At least Michael assumed they were male: they were large, easily twice his height and weight, and there really wasn't much feminine about them.

Michael blinked a couple of times, hoping he could explain it all away as a trick of the morning light and his persistent hangover, but the only thing he achieved was the realisation that the animals did not even appear solid, their bodies partly transparent, and that merely served to confuse him all the more.

"What the hell are _they_?" he eventually demanded of the woman. As he spoke, a voice in his head screamed at him to run, but he was rooted to the spot, fascinated in spite of his fear.

The strange woman looked around the alleyway; first at the dingy grey wall of a storage depot and then at the broken fence overgrown with thorn bushes from the field beyond. Michael was suddenly struck by just how far away he was from anyone else.

He had dashed out of the house upon finding the fridge devoid of milk and the woman waiting in his bed – what was her name? Pam? Sam? – insisting that her coffee be white. His hope for another round before calling her a taxi had meant he'd been willing to run to the nearest shop just to please her. Now he was seriously regretting his optimism.

Taking another step back, Michael cringed as the short woman turned her vacant eyes upon him. He froze under the weight of that dark gaze, suddenly unable to move any further, though he tried valiantly to finally turn and run.

The woman smiled, but it was cold and unconvincing on her pale face.

* * *


	10. Chapter 10

* * *

Captain Hart was sprawled across the hard bed in the cell, hands folded behind his head and eyes shut. He grinned as Jack and Ianto came to a halt in front of the door. "Hey, Jack, did you miss me?" he asked cheerfully.

"Quite the opposite," Jack told him. "I'd forgotten all about you."

"Oh," Hart exclaimed, clutching one hand dramatically to his chest. "That hurt!" He cracked open one eye to peer out at them. "You missed me, didn't you, Eye-Candy?"

Ianto resolutely kept his expression blank. "I barely remembered your name," he said, taking his cue from Jack as to how to treat their unwanted guest.

"Now I know that isn't true," Hart declared, leaping to his feet and moving to the door. "I saw it in here." He pointed to Ianto and then at his own head and the young man pressed his lips together tightly at the memory.

Jack glanced between them. "Ianto?"

Ianto rolled his eyes. "Apparently that thing in my head gave him an insight into my thoughts for a while."

"There's no _apparently_ about it," Hart cut in. "I was in there all right, poking around, uncovering your dirty little secrets." He glanced at Jack. "And boy, are they dirty! I never knew he had it in him!"

"Oh, come on," Ianto protested. "You could only hear my surface thoughts."

Hart's grin widened even further. "Ha! So it's no longer 'apparently', eh?"

"Okay, that's enough," Jack said sharply, interrupting their bickering. He turned a dark glare upon his old partner. "Tell me everything you know about this Lurrelia."

Hart made a thoughtful noise as he returned to the bed and lay down again. "I won't tell you anything until you let me out of here."

"You know I won't do that."

"Then you don't get to hear about your boy-toy's temporary visitor."

"She's done something to Ianto," Jack growled. "I want to know how to fix it. _Now_."

Hart yawned dramatically and said nothing.

The two men outside the cell exchanged a glance and Ianto shrugged, giving Jack complete control over the decision.

"Okay, let's see how you feel after a few days without food, water or company. But I promise you John, I _will_ make you talk."

Hart sat up swiftly, smiling at his former lover. "Really? Please try. In fact, do your worst, Jack. After all, you know _just_ how I like it."

With a monumental struggle, Jack resisted the urge to continue the banter. He moved silently to exit the block of cells, Ianto one step behind him, but once they were beyond the door he stopped and fixed a hard look upon the younger man. "What was that about?"

Ianto blinked at him. "What?"

"Don't give me that," Jack said. "You didn't tell me he could read your thoughts."

"It must have slipped my mind." Ianto considered the expression on Jack's face and went on. "He can't anymore, if that's what you're worried about."

"You mean you think he can't."

Ianto grimaced. He hadn't considered that. He had been so glad that Lurrelia had gone, and he had control over his body again, that Hart's brief foray into his thoughts hadn't seemed all that significant. "I don't think he saw anything important. Lurrelia was the one who made me open the safe and access the Manipulator's systems, so if we have to worry about anybody, it should be her."

"I am worried about her," Jack admitted. "If she's left your head, where exactly has she gone?"

Ianto frowned. "Back to her own body, I hope. That's what John said would happen." He lifted his wrist. "This band linked to another on her body and allowed her consciousness to return to where it came from."

"So she just hopped back through the Rift to her own body, wherever it might be, and that's that?"

Ianto shrugged. It did sound simple, and nothing they encountered was ever that straightforward, but he could not offer any other answer.

The Captain remained silent, brow creased with thought. Eventually he sighed loudly. "Well, I suppose we can only work with what we've got right now. That means we let Tosh continue her tests on that thing," he nodded towards Ianto's left arm, "and we work on John until he gives us something useful. Or else annoys me enough so I can shoot him."

"Ah," Ianto began, but then thought better of saying anything else.

Jack, however, didn't miss the protest. "That's right, you wanted that pleasure, didn't you? Why was that again?"

Ianto looked away, unable to meet his gaze whilst he considered his answer. "Because of this," he said, examining his bandaged wrist. It was partly the truth, at least; he certainly wouldn't be sorry to see Hart pay for putting the band on him, especially when he had seemed to know just how much the process would hurt. And yet that wasn't the entire reason he had demanded in his fit of rage to kill Hart. It also had a lot to do with the way John had made him feel earlier, all hot and bothered, entirely against his will.

Jack seemed to recognise the half-truth for what it was, but he prudently let it be. "We'll leave him for a while to stew then we'll try again, each of us alone, and see if we can't convince him to stop showboating for us."

"Alone," Ianto echoed, knowing full well the kind of lewd comments he would be subject to if he went back in there on his own.

"Yeah. Something tells me he might actually reveal useful information if encouraged in the right way."

"If that's what you want to do, Sir," Ianto said, unconvinced.

"You know you really should stop calling me that," Jack told him. "Unless we're role-playing again, that is."

Ianto looked away, flushing slightly at the memory. When Jack said nothing further, he glanced up and found the Captain smiling fondly at him. Ianto studied the blue eyes locked with his own. He was accustomed to Jack's flirting, to his inappropriate behaviour during work hours, and he usually did a good job of making sure nothing happened whilst the others were still in the Hub. Yet now that they couldn't do anything anyway, he felt the sudden need for contact.

He reached out before Jack could stop him and placed his palm against the older man's chest. He felt one faint throb of the other's heart before having to pull his hand away, making a face as he did so. "Just checking," he said quietly, flexing his fingers to relieve the ache.

They walked back up to the centre of the Hub, but once they reached sight of the water tower, Ianto stopped. Jack went on a few steps further before realising and glancing back over his shoulder. "What is it?"

"Are you hurt?" Ianto asked, looking up towards the distant ceiling. The drop from the hole in the tower's side was considerable and though the fall hadn't killed Jack - that much was evident from his swift attack on Hart - Ianto could not believe that even the Captain could have walked away unharmed.

Jack gave his trademark grin. "I'm fine. I've fallen a lot further than that before, and not always with a rope either."

Ianto didn't doubt that, but something still troubled him. He frowned, suddenly realising what it was. "How did you do that?" He nodded up towards the jagged hole in the stainless-steel.

"Frenst detonator," Jack told him smugly. "The best thing we ever did was install that sealed compartment in the SUV. I would _not_ like to have been trapped in there when the Manipulator was at full power."

Ianto smiled faintly in agreement, silently thanking whatever had inspired them to build a hidden recess into the vehicle. It meant they were able to take more dangerous items out into the field without worrying about anybody stumbling across them accidentally and it was now evident just how good an idea that had been. Jack certainly wouldn't have had access to anything quite as useful as the explosives that had helped him get back into the Hub if they hadn't done it.

"Come on," Jack said, leading the way over to Toshiko's workstation. "Anything to report?" he asked her, shoving his hands into his pockets and nodding at Gwen and Owen as they join them.

"I've compared the readings from our previous tests on the band to those Owen took for me during his examination," Tosh explained, tapping at her keyboard to bring up the results on her screens. "The signature is the same as before, although the energy level has increased slightly, due to the device being activated, but there's nothing to suggest that it's still functioning. I would say that it's dormant now, although the fact that it is still emitting energy means we should definitely keep an eye on it. In case it does anything unusual."

"I'd say it's been doing some unusual things already," Owen commented dryly from behind her but Tosh pointedly ignored him.

"As for removing it," she went on, "I'm not eager to try that just yet. I want to run a few more simulations and scans, just to make sure we can safely cut it off."

"How long will that take?" Jack asked her.

"At least another five hours or so."

Ianto nodded. That didn't sound very long to him, but as he looked at the expressions upon the others' faces, it was clear that they didn't agree. He gave Tosh a reassuring smile and she visibly relaxed back into her chair.

"Um," Gwen said, drawing their attention to her. She waved a thin manila file at them. "I pulled the record on the band's discovery," she explained, opening the folder to reveal the print-outs she had made. "It says here that it was found with another object that came through the Rift. What happened to that?"

"It's in the archives," Ianto told her, reaching over to point at the code which told them where to find the item. "Classified non-toxic, non-earthly origin and non-descriptive."

Gwen looked up at him, puzzled. "Which means?"

"It means we don't know what it is, but we know it's safe."

"It looked like junk," Owen commented absently.

"It looked like part of a container," Tosh said. "Like the corner of a metal crate which had broken."

"And thus junk," Owen finished, finally earning a glare from her.

"I'd like to take a look at it," Gwen said, eyes fixed on the papers in her hand. "There might be something that can tell us more about that band. Now that we know what it actually does," she added, looking up and smiled apologetically, but no one took offence at the implication that they might have missed something.

Ianto nodded. "Of course. I'll take you down there now."

"No, you won't," Jack declared. "You're going to sleep. You all are." He glanced at his watch. "It's almost ten, so I want you to go home and rest. Come back in the afternoon and we'll have a proper meeting once Toshiko's simulations have finished and Gwen's had a nose around the archives."

Gwen began to make a half-hearted protest, but Jack cut her off with a firm look. "The situation is contained at the moment. In fact it's non-existent." He grinned at their blank looks. "Ianto's hitchhiker has gone and he's got his voice back, Tosh has secured the Hub and changed all the security protocols and John's locked up and no threat to anybody. So there's nothing to worry about right now and I think you'd all benefit from a few hours sleep before the next crisis begins."

Gwen pursed her lips unhappily. "I wish you wouldn't put it like that."

"Why not? There's always a next crisis, I'm just being realistic."

"Yeah, but one day I'd like to hear you say everything's hunky-dory."

"Hah! You'd get bored if everything was 'hunky-dory'."

Gwen gave him a big grin. "Of course, but I wanted to hear you say hunky-dory!"

"Can we all please stop saying hunky-dory?!" Owen exclaimed, throwing up his hands in exasperation. He moved over to his desk to grab the jacket slung over the back of his chair. "Anyway, I'm not going to argue with getting a bit of kip. Anyone else coming?"

The two women exchanged a glance and shrugged, giving into fatigue over the desire to keep working. Tosh hesitated as she climbed down from her chair. "Ianto, did you want to come over to my place? You probably shouldn't be on your own right now and I can monitor the readings from the band in case anything changes."

Ianto smiled gratefully at her concern. "Thank you, Tosh-" he began, only to be interrupted by Jack.

"-But he'll be staying here today," the older man finished decisively.

One of Ianto's eyebrows crept up as he gave Jack a questioning look.

"Tosh is right," Jack told him. "You shouldn't be alone and I don't think you should be far from the Hub whilst you've got that thing on your wrist." He paused briefly. "Not to mention the prisoner who needs looking after," he added with a mischievous grin as Ianto rolled his eyes at him.

* * *

A little while later and everyone had finally departed, leaving the Hub quiet and peaceful. Ianto noticed that someone had cleared the base of the water tower, removing the remains of the panels that had been decimated by the alien bomb. He smiled to himself, touched that the others hadn't simply left the mess for him to deal with; although he would have to go over the area again himself, just to make sure they hadn't missed any of the sharp shards.

He moved over to the small kitchen, intent on fixing himself a large mug of strong coffee, only to find Jack suddenly blocking his path. "And just where do you think you're going?" the Captain asked, clearly already aware of the answer.

"I was going to make you a coffee, Jack," Ianto responded smoothly. "It is the morning, after all."

Jack glared at him. "Oh no, don't even think about trying that one. You're getting into bed, right now, and no arguments."

Ianto's eyes widened slightly, thoughts unintentionally skipping to a far less innocent meaning beneath the command. "Jack, I don't think-" he started to protest.

Jack laughed, a strained sound that made Ianto want to cringe. "I meant to sleep, Ianto, and I don't intend to be there either."

"Ah," Ianto said. "Sorry."

"Don't apologise. This isn't your fault."

Ianto smiled, relieved and nodded. Jack lifted one hand to pat Ianto's shoulder but froze and dropped it again ruefully before making contact. "You're exhausted. You need to rest and clear your mind."

"What if we can't fix this?" Ianto asked, eyes following Jack's hand wistfully.

"We will." Jack grinned at him. "But if we can't, then we'll just have to be even more inventive than ever."

* * *


	11. Chapter 11

* * *

Ianto awoke to the sensation of being gently shaken. "Ianto?" said Gwen's voice. "Come on, Sweetheart, it's time to wake up."

He opened groggy eyes and looked around, still half asleep. Memory filtered back into his waking mind as he realised that he was sprawled across a lumpy cot in one of rooms deep beneath the centre of the Hub. Pushing himself up, the blanket fell to his lap and Gwen's gaze went straight to the mass of bruises that had blossomed into vivid colours over his chest. She made a sympathetic noise. "You really haven't had much luck these past few days, have you?"

Ianto laughed weakly, rubbing the sleep from his eyes with his undamaged hand. "I certainly won't be buying a lotto ticket this week," he told her. "What time is it?"

"A little after four-thirty. I was going to-"

The Welshman straightened with a jerk. "Four-thirty?! Why didn't you wake me earlier?"

"I was going to let you sleep longer," Gwen continued, unperturbed, "but something else has happened."

He groaned. "You're kidding! What now?"

"Well, there have been some mysterious new admissions at the hospital. People are turning up comatose for no good reason, which is strange enough, but they also all seem to be wearing very similar bracelets."

Ianto caught on immediately and looked down at his bandaged wrist. "Oh, God," he breathed, before frowning as the rest of her words sank in. "They're in comas?"

"Yep, and with no sign of trauma to explain their condition either. The others have gone to take a look at them while we go through their personal details."

Drawing in a deep and calming breath, Ianto reached for the shirt he had flung aside before collapsing into bed. He still had his trousers on – he'd been far too tired to bother removing them whilst the bed called like a siren to his exhausted body – and with Gwen's help he was soon dressed in everything but his suit jacket and ready to get back to work. Even if he did look completely dishevelled and worn-out.

After retrieving something to eat and drink, the pair settled in the conference room, pouring over the information Gwen had gathered about the people admitted to the hospital earlier that day. There was nothing immediately obvious to connect them, and that meant they would have to dig deeper to find a link; if there was one.

Ianto tried to help Gwen, but after a while it became clear that she was so deeply consumed by her task that she had forgotten he was even there. Before long he decided to leave her to it, slipping away when he realised there was something else he could do to help the situation.

A few minutes later he struggled into one of the blocks of cells, using his good shoulder to push open the heavy metal door with a grunt. He had a full glass tucked into the crook of his right arm, which was threatening to slip and spill water all over his cast and when he finally managed to get through without slamming the door in his own face, he glanced up to find Captain Hart watching from his cell. He was leaning against the dirty partition, looking completely untroubled by his imprisonment.

"You should have knocked," Hart told him. "I'd have opened it for you."

Ianto said nothing. He retrieved the water from within his sling before it could slide any further and walked slowly over to stand in front of the cell.

Hart's eyes drifted to the glass, lingered briefly before returning to meet Ianto's steady gaze. "Is that meant to tempt me?"

"No, this is mine. Jack said you weren't to have anything."

Hart snorted with laughter. "Oh, come on. Don't you think I've been through worse than a little starvation?"

Ianto shrugged. "I'm sure you have, but we're not trying to torture you."

"Then why no food or water?"

"Hopefully it'll help convince you to start talking."

"I told you already, let me out of here and I'll tell you everything."

"Tell us everything and we'll let you out," Ianto countered without missing a beat.

Hart grinned wolfishly at him. "Oh, I can see why Jack likes to play with you. It must be such a joy to shut you up."

Ianto shifted uncomfortably; a movement that Hart did not fail to notice. His grin widened even further. "Oh, but you've not been playing recently, have you?" he asked, lowering his chin and looking up through his lashes at the young Welshman. "I bet you can't think of anything worse than being touched by him right now. Am I right?"

Ianto clenched his jaw. "What did she do to me?" he demanded but Hart laughed it off.

"His touch pains you, doesn't it? Even the thought of being with him makes you physically sick." Hart pressed close to the door, eyes peering through the holes in the transparent material. "I bet he can't get your heart pounding anymore, not like I've got it pounding now."

Ianto barely managed to contain the gasp that rose in his throat. How could Hart have known the effect he was having on him? He swallowed, praying it was just a lucky guess, and held himself as still as possible in case he gave away just how accurate Hart had been.

Their eyes were locked but Ianto soon forced his away, lifting the glass to his lips and drinking to cover his discomfort. "Eye-Candy," Hart said quietly, but was ignored. "Ianto," he breathed, and Ianto could do nothing but look back at him, drawn back to the deep pools of lust in his eyes. "I can see you trembling," Hart told him. "You know you shouldn't but you want me. You can't help yourself."

The low voice pulled Ianto closer to the cell, everything forgotten save for the warmth of desire coiling low within his body.

"Don't fight it," said Hart, his hands splayed across the door as if reaching out for Ianto. "I'm right here for you. For _you_, Ianto."

The glass of water fell from suddenly numb fingers, shattering unnoticed on the hard floor and Ianto reached out blindly with his newly empty hand to open the door to Hart's cell.

Hart was nodding in encouragement, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. "That's it, Eye-Candy. Come and get it."

The door swung open and the two men slammed into each other, lips crashing desperately together. Ianto groaned into Hart's mouth, mostly in pain as his arm was crushed between them, but also in undeniable enjoyment. Heat rushed through his body, his skin seeming to burn wherever the other man touched him.

Hart shoved Ianto back against the far wall, one knee sliding in between his legs and up towards his groin. Ianto moaned again, causing Hart to grin against his lips.

"I've changed my mind," the former Time Agent said. "I _definitely_ don't want to shut you up."

He pressed harder against Ianto, one hand reaching down to cup the evidence of the effect he was having on the Welshman. When Ianto gasped and clutched at his arm, Hart deftly unfastened his trousers, talented fingers twisting their way through the layers of cloth until they met hot flesh.

Ianto arched into the touch, his free hand scrabbling with Hart's clothing. Somehow he managed to get in and grasp Hart's erection, pumping in time with the fingers upon his own. They rushed towards completion, the pain in Ianto's broken arm causing a twisted feedback loop of agony and ecstasy that caused him to writhe wantonly against the persistent Captain.

Hart captured his lips in another bruising kiss, increasing the rough movement of his fist until Ianto jerked and cried out into his mouth. Hart came hard a moment later, grunting before he leaned back to laugh triumphantly.

Panting, Ianto didn't say anything as Hart pulled away. He stared down at himself, at the semen splattered across his waistcoat and the plastic sling. The reality of what had just happened hit him and he hurried to straighten his clothes, tucking himself away before daring to look up again.

Hart was watching him, his own attire suspiciously neat and unmarked. "Now I'll talk," he said, a smug grin upon his face.

* * *


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Another huge thank you to those of you reading this, and an even bigger one for all the lovely reviews I'm getting. I sure hope the story continues to entertain you as it seems to have done so far! It's now time for a few answers...and even more questions...yay!!

* * *

Gwen looked up as Ianto entered the room. "There you are, come and-" She fell silent as she noticed the figure standing behind him, her eyes widening in surprise. "What's he doing out here?" she asked, jumping to her feet and reaching around her back for a gun that wasn't there.

"John's decided to start co-operating," Ianto said, lifting his hand to calm her. "It didn't seem fair to keep him locked up if he's helping us."

Gwen narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Right," she said slowly. "And how exactly is he offering 'help'?"

Hart stepped past Ianto and into the room, causing Gwen to tense. "I'm going to tell you everything I know about Lurrelia," he told her, "and afterwards, Eye-Candy's promised that we can have that orgy I missed out on last time."

"Keep that up and you'll go back to your cell," warned Gwen. She was quiet for a moment, her forehead creased in thought, then she pursed her lips and nodded. "Fine, sit down and talk. But no funny business or I'll make sure you never take part in any orgies ever again."

Hart lifted one eyebrow and glanced over his shoulder at Ianto. "Feisty, isn't she?"

Ianto's expression remained perfectly blank and Hart shrugged, unruffled by the lack of a response.

He sat and swung his feet up onto the tabletop. "Any chance of some food now, Eye-Candy?" he asked, fluttering his eyelashes and then glancing meaningfully down at the end of the table.

Ianto sighed and moved to retrieve the tray Gwen had brought out earlier for their snack. There were still a few slices of bread and meat left in their packets and although Hart made a face as the tray slid over to him, he reached for them without voicing his disappointment. "Drink?" he asked, smiling innocently up at Ianto.

Ianto rolled his eyes and went to fetch more coffee. As he turned away, Gwen caught his eye, giving him a look that he interpreted as a request to fetch a weapon whilst he was out of the room. When he returned with only three mugs balanced upon a small silver tray, Gwen frowned at being unable to see a gun anywhere upon him. Ianto was more concerned that she would notice he had removed his waistcoat before returning with Hart, but she said nothing about the lack of either.

"Okay, so talk," Gwen commanded, turning her attention back to their unwanted guest. She watched Hart as though he were a ticking bomb and Ianto was glad he'd decided that having a gun in the room was not a particularly good idea at that time.

Hart took a large, satisfying bite of the sandwich he had made. "I met Lurrelia on a planet called Omysa," he said around the food in his mouth. "The body she was in at the time was far too great a temptation for me to pass up." He leered at the pair sitting across from him. "We even spent a whole two nights together before I got bored of her. That would have been the end of it, but we encountered each other again a few days later, whilst she was in a different body. I didn't have a clue about her abilities back then, of course; I thought they were two entirely separate people and who could blame me? They looked different, they sounded different, I had no way of connecting them."

He took another bite, chewing slowly as Gwen and Ianto waited impatiently for him to go on. "She then, it seems, saw the opportunity for a game. That and she couldn't get enough of me." He made a show of smoothing his hair, the smirk on his face causing both members of Torchwood to roll their eyes and demand that he get on with the story. He grinned at their reaction.

"She began to follow me, jumping from body to body and positioning them where I would run into her. She had a good eye and I probably spent most of my time on Omysa with her in one form or another."

"You slut," said Gwen. Ianto glanced across and saw a reluctant smile tugging at her lips.

Hart nodded. "Oh yes," he agreed. "And a good one too. Why don't we take a break and I can show you?"

"Just get on with it," Ianto said, shifting uncomfortably in his chair.

"After a while I noticed certain similarities between the habits of my companions and when I mentioned it to one of them, Lurrelia revealed her presence. She told me all about herself and what she could do. Then she challenged me to another round of her game and, naturally, I couldn't back down from such a contest." Hart smiled fondly at the memory. "I don't know how many times she jumped bodies or even how many times she was actually in those I caught. One time I was with a rather nice trio of brothers and I'm convinced she was moving between them constantly, just to tease me."

Hart's gaze came to rest on Ianto. "They reminded me a bit of you, Eye-Candy. Very reserved on the outside, but once you got them out of their clothing..." He trailed off, eyes flickering over what he could see of Ianto's body. The young Welshman shifted again, conscious that Gwen was glancing between them. Had she guessed what had happened, or did she just think Hart was being his own incorrigible self?

Ianto scowled at him. "These people Lurrelia was in control of, the ones you slept with, did they have any choice in the matter?"

Hart's eyebrows rose briefly at the question, before his expression shifted back into a casual smirk. "Did I take _advantage_, do you mean?" he drawled, apparently understanding the hidden meaning in the question. "I don't know. You'd have to ask them."

Ianto didn't respond, though the fury was clear in his eyes. He looked to his side and saw a similar dark understanding tensing Gwen's features.

Hart and Lurrelia had essentially forced all of those people to have sex with Hart, with a stranger, and then left without any explanation or care for what came of their abuse. That fact angered Ianto more than the unpleasantness of his own situation, and yet he could not stop from thinking about what had happened down in the cells.

Lurrelia was supposed to have left his mind, so she surely could not have made him give into Hart's weak seduction, and yet he knew that logically he would never allow himself to behave in such a shameful way. Did that mean that Lurrelia was still controlling him? Or that her brief presence in his mind was still affecting him?

Or did it mean that he had less control over himself, particularly around attractive and strong-willed men, than he believed?

Ianto shook his head fractionally, trying to push away the disturbing thoughts. He wasn't sure which explanation he preferred, except perhaps the most far-fetched possibility that this was all one horrible dream from which he would soon awaken.

If only things were that easy.

Gwen had begun speaking again and Ianto forced himself to concentrate on her words, determined not to allow Hart to disrupt him from doing his duty.

"You have no morals at all, do you?" she asked tightly. "You're a selfish egotistical dick on legs and you don't care who you hurt, just as long as you get off."

Hart grinned, evidently pleased with the response he had evoked. "Anyway," he said, smoothly ignoring her accusation, "we didn't stay on Omysa. I'm not sure how long we travelled but it was a while and I got very good at finding her. But then she discovered she could move through time."

Gwen blinked at that and leaned forward, intrigued in spite of her rage. "Time?" she echoed. "How could she do that?"

Hart shrugged. "Beats me. And Lurrelia didn't explain it very well. She went on about something in the mind and memories and," he waved a hand helplessly, "something. Whatever, she was able to move backwards or forwards in someone's lifetime and then jump to another person in the new period of time."

Hart paused to take a sip of his coffee and moaned in delight. "This is fantastic," he assured Ianto, licking his lips and downing the rest of the cup. "The game got a lot more interesting when she started playing around in time. Obviously it gave me more of a challenge, but she left certain clues scattered about, like an erotic treasure hunt if you will, and I was able to find the people she had moved through. I caught her a few times but that only made her go further and further until finally, she got lost."

Ianto narrowed his eyes. "How could she become lost?"

"She went too far from her own body, apparently. Her people had never experimented with any kind of time travel and I don't think she was really aware of what she was doing. She panicked and started jumping at random. I was still able to follow her but she wouldn't calm down enough to let me catch her. From what she told me, she found herself here somehow, where she came across Eye-Candy," he nodded at Ianto, "and learnt of Torchwood."

"And she thought she could use our knowledge and equipment to get home again?" guessed Gwen.

"To start with, yes, but imagine her delight to find you had a Quar-Meil stashed away in here. That made things so much easier."

Ianto glanced down at his arm. "I take it you mean this," he said. The memory of the pain from the band's activation made him shudder and he glared across the table. "Why did _you_ come here then? She found out everything she needed to know from our minds and she was obviously quite happy to use me as a link." He lifted his hand to prove that point and felt extremely satisfied to see the faintest flicker of remorse in the other man's eyes.

"I was still following her," Hart reminded him. "Plus, as it turned out, she needed me to start up that Manipulator of yours. Apparently none of you were quite as clued into its workings as she wanted and she didn't have time to figure it out herself in case someone realised she was here."

"Jack knows all about the Rift Manipulator," Gwen said with a deep frown. "Why not use his knowledge?"

"Because I doubt Lurrelia was foolish enough to even consider going anywhere near Jack." Hart reached over the broad table and swapped Ianto's untouched coffee with his own empty mug. "Think about it. Can you imagine going into a mind that's seen what he's seen, done what he's done? She'd have gone mad within the day!"

"Sounds like she already is mad," Gwen said, a teasing tone in her voice. "She followed you around far too eagerly to be sane."

"I'm more surprised that _he_ followed her around for so long," Ianto said, raising his eyebrows at Gwen and ignoring Hart's evil look.

"You don't think I can do anything more than one night stands, Eye-Candy?" he asked. "Need I remind you that I spent two years with your illustrious Lord and Master and didn't stray once?"

"Only because you couldn't," Ianto pointed out blithely.

"Okay, boys," Gwen said, interrupting before they could get going. "We've got more important things to worry about than Hart's amazing ability to commit to someone other than himself."

"Right," agreed Ianto, gladly jumping upon the change in subject. "The other bands."

Hart finished his stolen coffee and slouched back in his chair. "Eye-Candy mentioned those earlier," he said. "But I thought you only had one of them here."

"We did. This is it."

"So where did the others come from then?"

Ianto suppressed a sigh. "That's what _you're_ supposed to be telling us."

Hart made a thoughtful noise. "Well, I didn't bring any with me, if that's what you're thinking."

"I know you didn't," Ianto said. "I was there when you arrived."

"Did Lurrelia mention anything about them?" Gwen asked.

"No and if she'd known about them wouldn't she have had retrieved one of them before infiltrating your little base here?"

The point was a good one and neither Gwen nor Ianto responded to it. Hart smirked to see that he had thought of something they hadn't. He linked his hands behind his head and leant back, swinging his feet back up onto the table.

"Okay," Ianto began slowly. "Where they came from isn't as important as who's using them. Or for what purpose." He frowned in thought. "I doubt very much all these people just stumbled across them and suddenly decided today to put them on."

"After figuring out how to activate them," Hart added, earning a curious look from Gwen.

Ianto understood her reticence completely. Why was Hart so happy to help them without demanding anything in return? Ianto supposed it could simply be a way for him to regain his freedom - and Jack's favour - but that didn't seem very much in character for the former Time Agent. Ianto would have been far less surprised if he'd kept silent and tried as many different ways to escape as possible, just to be difficult.

"So someone with knowledge of these 'Quar-Meil' things is going around putting them on people?" Gwen sighed. "Well it has to be Lurrelia then. If it were anybody else it would be a hell of a coincidence."

Ianto shook his head. "But Lurrelia went back to her own body, didn't she?"

"I can't see how she could have gone anywhere else," Hart replied.

"Surely she could have jumped into someone else, if she ever left Ianto at all."

Ianto pulled a face at Gwen. "Please don't suggest that. I feel much happier believing I'm alone in my head. Also I'm talking again, so she can't be in there."

"She'll have gone," Hart said. "She wanted her body back more than anything and when the bands linked together through the Rift she wouldn't have let the opportunity pass without taking it."

"So you can be sure that the link was successful?" Gwen asked.

Hart nodded towards Ianto's wrist. "I'm guessing your pretty skin is rather scorched under there," he said.

"You could say that," Ianto responded dryly.

"Then yes, I can be sure."

"Oh!" exclaimed Gwen, turning to her colleague. "Maybe he'll know how to get it off?" She looked back to find Hart grinning broadly.

"I do," he assured her, watching Ianto from beneath half-lowered eyelids.

"I meant the _band_," Gwen said with a sigh, fortunately failing to interpret the smug expression on Hart's face as anything other than his natural lewdness.

Hart blinked, his smile slipping a little. "Hang on, it's still attached?" he asked, dropping his feet to the floor and leaning forward.

Ianto held his hand out to Gwen, who silently peeled off the tape holding the thick gauze in place and pulled back the bandage, revealing the red flesh that lay beneath. The metal encircling his wrist looked completely out of place, cold and alien against his damaged skin.

The woman grimaced at the sight. "You need a clean dressing," she said, peering at the gauze padding which was damp and stained from the raw wound.

Ianto nodded in agreement but was more interested in whether Hart could indeed remove it or not. He glanced over the table to find an unexpected frown turning Hart's expression unusually serious.

It lasted no longer than a few seconds and then he appeared entirely unperturbed once again. "Well, that's not a good sign, is it?" he said. "It should've come off straight after."

Ianto closed his eyes and sighed. He really shouldn't have been surprised that something else had gone awry, but he was, and the constant problems were starting to give him a headache - on top of all the other aches he already possessed.

"Does that mean she's still in my head somehow?" he asked wearily. Gwen shot him a worried look, though he was pretty sure it was out of concern for her own safety rather than his. He couldn't blame her for thinking that; he had, after all, let Hart leave the cell when he shouldn't have, as well as a few other things Gwen thankfully wasn't aware of.

"Not quite."

"But she didn't go back to her body, did she?"

Hart gave him a lopsided grin. "I'd say it's more likely that she brought her body here."

"What?!" exclaimed Gwen. "How?"

Hart arched an eyebrow at her. "My best guess would be something to do with that Rift of yours."

"Well, where is she then?" Gwen countered. "Wouldn't she have appeared wherever Ianto was, if she was using him as a..." she waved a hand, looking for the right word, "...a gateway."

"The Rift spits things out all over Cardiff," said Ianto pointed out quietly.

Hart shrugged and Gwen rubbed at her eyes, sighing. "Okay, I'm going to call Jack." She pointed at the Captain as she rose to her feet. "You stay right where you are and don't move a muscle. Ianto, will you keep an eye on him, please?"

If she noticed the panic that flashed briefly in Ianto's eyes as she turned to go, she didn't stop to query it, and he was left alone with Hart once again.

* * *


	13. Chapter 13

* * *

There was something distinctive about the atmosphere in a hospital. Whether it was the smell or the sounds or just the knowledge that death was close by, Owen couldn't be sure, but it was there nonetheless and if one wasn't accustomed to it, they were instantly put on edge.

He could see it in Toshiko's bearing as they moved to the next occupied bed, a faint tension that came not from the current predicament but rather from their immediate surroundings. Owen had become immune to the effect years ago and he wasn't surprised to notice that Jack shared his stoicism. The older man must have seen a lot in all his undying years, including his fair share of death and disease, but Owen mentally shied away from pursuing that thought, as he had every other time he'd considered the bizarre twist of fate that was Jack Harkness. He couldn't imagine living for so long, couldn't imagine what it might feel like to die time after time and never be sure if the next death would be the last.

The beeping of Tosh's scanner dragged Owen back into the present and he hurried to check the patient's vitals, hoping the others hadn't noticed his lapse in attention. He glanced up to find that was pretty much impossible. Tosh's eyes were firmly glued to the screen of the device in her hand and Jack stood at the foot of the bed with his back to them, looking across the room at one of the ward's other occupants. Relaxing, Owen grabbed the nearby chart and skimmed the details recorded there. They were identical to the half-dozen charts he had already examined and would likely be identical to the other eight or nine he had yet to check. _No sign of physical trauma, no internal damage, no unusual substances in the blood._ Owen scowled deeply and dropped the chart back into place, looking down at the motionless woman's face as though he might find the answers there.

According to the tests the bewildered doctors had already performed, there was still brain activity present amongst the victims, which was just about the only encouraging detail in the entire situation. He reached over the bed to unbind the patient's wrist and expose the metal band and burnt flesh he already knew he would find there.

Tosh made a sympathetic face, though she had already seen similar damage on the other comatose people. "It's the same," she confirmed, adjusting something on her scanner. "Identical energy patterns to the others."

_Identical._ Owen nodded; he was starting to hate that word. The only thing stopping him was the obvious connection to Ianto. The fact that he had the same object on his wrist and was still conscious reassured Owen that there was definitely something to find that would lead them to a solution.

Jack, who had been shadowing them, alternating between falling silent in deep thought or quizzing as many visitors and members of staff as he could, suddenly straightened, alert as Gwen's voice came over their concealed ear pieces.

"Jack, it's me."

"Go ahead, we're all here."

"I've got some good news," Gwen told them. "And, of course, a bit of bad news too."

Owen rolled his eyes at Tosh and set about wrapping up the patient's arm.

"The good news is that John's decided to start talking and has told us a fair amount about Lurrelia."

"Okay, that's something. What's the bad news?"

Gwen took a deep breath. "Ianto let him out of the cell."

"What?" the Captain growled. "Why the hell did he do that?"

"He seems to be under the impression that we can trust John."

Jack sighed. "I suppose you're keeping an eye on both of them then?" he asked tightly, unsurprised by her affirmative response. He caught Owen's eye and the doctor recognised his concern that Ianto was still under the influence of the alien being.

"There's more, Jack," Gwen went on. "What he told us isn't really of much help. He claims to know nothing of the other bands, but he believes that instead of going back to her body on her own world, Lurrelia brought it here."

"Apparently along with a stash of pretty bangles," Owen muttered, moving away from the bed to Jack's side.

"We'd already guessed as much, Gwen," Jack reminded her.

"Yes, but he came to that conclusion because the band is still attached to Ianto. He said it should have opened once the connection between him and Lurrelia was broken."

"So he thinks they could still be linked?" Tosh asked, having finished her scans and joined her companions. She looked at the bed behind them. "If that were the case..."

She trailed off with a frown and Owen unnecessarily finished her thought aloud. "Then all of these people are connected to someone else too."

Jack gave a humourless smile. "How heart-warming. What else, Gwen?"

"Well, I think I've got an idea of who those people might be linked to," she said, though she sounded hesitant to suggest it. "I've been comparing the information we have on all the victims, including what CCTV footage we could find."

"And?" Owen prompted when she fell quiet again.

"And the things I've found look more like animals than people."

The trio looked at each other, disturbed by the idea.

"Have you got a location on them?" Jack asked.

"I'm tracking them right now. Want me to send you the coordinates?"

"No, don't bother, I'm going to swing by and pick you all up. I think it best if we don't leave John or Ianto alone in the Hub." He turned to Tosh. "You and Owen stay here. We're probably going to need as much information as we can on these things so finish your scans. If you're done before us, make your own way back and get started, okay?"

Tosh nodded. "Okay. I shouldn't be much longer," she told him.

"Let me know if there are any new developments," Jack went on, glancing at Owen as well and getting another nod of understanding. "If you could get one of them to wake up and tell us everything we need to know, that would be ideal."

"I'll get right on that, Jack," Owen replied sardonically.

* * *


	14. Chapter 14

* * *

Jack glanced in the rear-view mirror and immediately caught John's eye. Looking away, he clenched his jaw and resisted the urge to grill the man further. He knew it was likely that John hadn't told them everything, but he didn't have time to fully devote himself to extracting more information.

After another few minutes he checked again and found that John was still watching him. The former Time Agent grinned, an almost feral expression that Jack recognised instantly. His mind was flooded with the memory of what usually happened when John got that look in his eyes and Jack felt himself smiling in spite of the dire situation.

Gwen decided at that moment to speak up, breaking the haze of recollection and causing Jack to realise with a jolt that he should really be watching the road.

"There's something I don't understand," she declared, frowning across the back seat at Hart. "You can move through time with your wrist strap, so why didn't Lurrelia just have you take her back?"

John turned his gaze away from the mirror at last. "She panicked, I guess. If she'd let me catch up with her I could've helped, but by the time I got here, she already had a plan in motion and I didn't see any reason to disrupt it."

Gwen hummed disapprovingly. "Because it causes us trouble, no doubt."

"What a terrible thing to say," Hart protested. "I merely wanted the chance to catch up with my old pals, nothing more."

"Right." Gwen's disbelief was obvious, although Jack could tell there was some truth in his ex-partner's claim.

Not _enough_ truth, but some at least.

"You said you didn't always know which body Lurrelia was in," Gwen went on, apparently still eager to get all the facts straight in her mind.

"Yes?" John replied with a shrug.

"But surely you could tell by the fact they couldn't speak, right?"

He laughed. "Hardly. That's only a side-effect for your primitive physiology."

"You're joking," Gwen countered.

"Nope. Humans in this time are affected differently by her presence than those in the future."

Jack gave a snort of doubt. "And you know this because...?"

"Because when I arrived here, Lurrelia had to explain why Eye-Candy couldn't talk."

"I don't remember that," said Ianto quietly.

"Of course you don't, it was a private conversation."

Jack glanced over to see Ianto frowning out the window. Since returning to the Hub to collect the other three, Jack had continually tried to gauge Ianto's state of mind. The last few days had been hard on the young man and though he seemed to be holding himself together, Jack was worried that he wasn't quite so calm beneath the surface.

"Jack?" Tosh's voice suddenly called through their earpieces.

"Toshiko!" Jack exclaimed. "Are you two back at the Hub?"

"Not yet, two more victims arrived before we could leave. One of them was comatose and had a band on his arm, but the other was dead. She was..." Tosh drew in a shaky breath. "Jack, she was completely ripped open. Owen thinks there are organs missing too. Or at least parts of organs..."

"The animals," Gwen guessed. "They're attacking people now."

Jack shot a look back over his shoulder, seeing the panic in her eyes. "Is there any chance the two incidents are unrelated, Tosh?"

"It's unlikely. They were found in the same location and both were covered with the woman's blood."

"Wonderful," Jack said solemnly. "Okay, let us know if anything else comes up." He severed the connection. "Well, I guess we can assume that whatever these creatures are, they're certainly dangerous."

"Then you'll be wanting to take these things off me," John piped up, lifting his hands and displaying the cuffs holding his wrists together. "Oh and I'll need my weapons back too, if you'd be so kind."

Gwen laughed. "How on Earth could you believe that would work?"

"I'm an optimist!"

"You didn't even warn us about those animals, why should we trust you with a gun?"

"I told you already, I didn't _know_ about the animals," insisted Hart. "Honestly, I've never seen them before."

"So you say," Gwen muttered.

Jack didn't bother to join in the argument going on behind him. He studied Ianto's profile again, positive that the Welshman was blaming himself for the woman's death, despite the fact that he could have done nothing to stop it, or in fact anything else that had happened so far.

Sensing Jack's attention upon him, Ianto looked around. He gave a smile that was meant to be reassuring, but Jack knew it was merely a mask that he adopted in tense situations.

Ianto turned away and then straightened slightly. "Jack, stop. We're here."

"How do you know?" Jack asked.

Ianto pointed at the road ahead, to which Jack had barely been paying attention. "The people fleeing in terror gave it away."

Jack slammed his foot down on the brake, bringing the SUV to a sudden jolting stop, although he was still a safe distance away from the pair of figures running through the beams of the vehicle's headlights. Everyone tumbled out, heading in the opposite direction to the couple only to come up short when Jack rounded on John.

"You," he said, poking a finger into the shorter man's chest. "Don't get any ideas about trying to escape."

John looked at him aghast. "I would never dream of trying to escape from you, Lover. I've got far too many things left on my 'to do' list to leave now."

Gwen sighed loudly. "Don't you ever stop?"

"Why would I want to?" Hart answered innocently.

A scream filled the air and they all turned towards the pained sound.

"Jack, can I have my gun now?" requested Ianto, lowering his voice so that the others wouldn't hear him.

Long years of practice kept the wince from showing on the Captain's face. When gathering weapons for the upcoming confrontation he had told Ianto he would carry his gun for him during the journey, to make sure he was safe and comfortable, and although the lie had caused Ianto to frown in suspicion, he had still agreed.

Unfortunately Jack had yet to decide what he was going to say _after_ the journey.

"You know I can shoot just as well with my left hand as my right," the young man went on. "You were the one who insisted I learn." When Jack hesitated to reply, Ianto's eyes hardened. "You still aren't sure you can trust me," he said in a flat voice.

Jack held his gaze for only a brief moment before reaching to where he had tucked his lover's preferred handgun into his waistband. Handing over the weapon, he flashed Ianto a big grin before moving off after Gwen and John.

They had already reached the corner beyond which the scream had emanated and were peering around the wall whilst they waited for the other two to join them. Ahead of them there were a handful of shops and a small play area, all arranged around a square of cracked paving slabs. It was illuminated by unflattering orange lights that did not reach all corners, making it a place shunned at night by wary people and favoured by gangs of obnoxious youths.

Jack scowled to see large pools of fresh blood spreading across the ground. The source of these was evidently the three bodies, or rather the remains of three bodies, which were being pawed at by a pair of what appeared from behind to be large, naked and hairy men. One of the creatures stood off to the side, hanging back from the action and looking, inexplicably, as though he were an apparition; a ghost one could pass their hand straight through without encountering resistance.

In the midst of the carnage, a short and slender figure bent over a young woman who was twisting in an attempt to escape the hands clamped about her wrists.

"Lurrelia!" Jack shouted, taking a step out into the open. "Move away from her."

The alien glanced up, blinking big dark eyes at the new arrivals. Her gaze slid easily over Jack and straight to Hart. "John," she purred in greeting. "How lovely you look in those restraints. We should really do that more often." She licked her lips. "Perhaps with chains."

John smirked and moved forward. "Oh, that's definitely doable," he told her. "I like nothing more than a bit of bondage at the end of the day." He looked at Gwen. "Or at the start." Then at Ianto. "Or in the middle." He turned back to Lurrelia. "What about your new friends, though? Would they want to watch or join in?"

"You wouldn't want them to join in," Lurrelia said softly.

"Why ever not? They're big, strong and naked, what's not to like?"

The woman smiled demurely and didn't reply. Her gaze dropped to the teen lying at her feet; kept in place by Lurrelia's continued hold on one of her wrists. She was covered in the blood of the dead, her face pale with terror.

"Let her go," Jack commanded, lifting his Webley and aiming it at the alien. At the edge of his vision he could see Gwen and Ianto follow suit on either side of him.

As though sensing the new danger, the two creatures who had been feeding turned towards the intruders. They were grim to look at, very much like Weevils and yet different still; larger, furred and lacking the instincts of the Weevils to cover themselves with scavenged garments.

The barrels of Gwen and Ianto's weapons each tracked one of the strange animals and Jack trusted them to cover him as he slid forward slowly. Lurrelia smiled, still not looking at him, and in a move almost too swift to see, she produced a short strip of metal from within her clothing and snapped it around the girl's wrist.

The youth's body instantly arched up and a terrible scream rent through the night air.

Jack, Gwen and Ianto hurried a few steps towards her, only to come to a shocked halt when the third animal, who had yet to move, suddenly growled jubilantly. They all looked over and saw the ghost-like creature was gradually becoming solid. It was obvious to Jack what was happening, though the mechanics of it remained vague; each band was linked to one of the beasts and when they were attached to a human, they caused the creature to cross the vast distance in time and space to Earth.

"Oh, God," Gwen murmured, making the connection as well.

"That's new," John said. "I didn't know the Quar-Meil could do that."

Lurrelia stepped away from the motionless youth, uninterested in her now that the band was in place. "There are many things you don't know, Captain Hart," she informed him. "And many things you should have realised long before now."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"You believe things far too readily, John, especially if you're told them whilst otherwise occupied."

"So you lied about a few things." Hart shrugged. "I can't say I was entirely honest with you either."

"What are you doing here?" Jack demanded, interrupting their bickering. "Somehow I can't believe you're simply 'lost'."

"Not anymore, no," she admitted with a smile. "When I started playing around in time I admit I did lose control for a while, but as soon as I arrived here I knew it was the right world for us."

"Us?" Gwen cautiously echoed.

"My people. We need a new home and I think this world is a perfect choice."

"No deal," Jack told her bluntly. "This world is already taken."

Lurrelia's smile broadened. "That's why it's so perfect! All these people to serve us and still more than enough left over to make sure our pets never go hungry again."

Everyone's attention turned towards the bear-like creatures. "They're your pets?" Ianto asked in disbelief.

"Of course. They can't think for themselves, but they take direction very well."

"And they like to eat people," said Gwen, her expression hard with disgust.

"It's how they grow big and strong," Lurrelia explained. She eyed the animals fondly.

"Well it stops now." Jack adjusted his aim slightly. "You and your pets can go home right now. You surely didn't think we'd just roll over and let you get away with this?"

Lurrelia was seemingly unconcerned by the weapon pointed at her. "Of course not. I've seen just how tenacious the people of this world can be. But I really don't expect you to surrender to me."

"What _are_ your intentions then?" Ianto demanded, the anger that had been growing over the past few days finally seeping through into his tone. "You can't take over the world with so few."

"Oh Ianto, you dear sweet boy, you're right of course, but I'm not nearly deluded enough to believe that I could. You see I'm only a scout, one of many who were sent out to seek a new home for our people. We were so desperate after the devastation that had been wrought upon our world and we looked far and wide for somewhere suitable but could find nowhere that would fulfil our needs. At least none which we could so easily conquer as this one." She laughed coldly. "You know I'd actually given up looking. When I met John, I was attempting to distract myself from my failure with a little psychic projection, and he did _very_ well at helping me get over it."

Jack, Ianto and Gwen all exchanged a glance before turning to glare at John. The Time Agent shrugged innocently.

"All we have to do now is wait," Lurrelia was saying. "Now that I've discovered this world, and the means with which to reach it, I will not be alone for long." She reached out for the creature standing closest to her and idly stroked a hand along its furry arm. "I'm expecting-" She broke off as the animal on her other side began to convulse, as though suffering a seizure, pained whimpers escaping through clenched fangs. Lurrelia stared at it, as did everyone else in the square, and all saw the moment that it blinked out of existence.

Stunned silence fell as they attempted to process what had just occurred. Almost as one, as though rehearsed at some earlier time, all eyes swung towards the remaining two animals. They each gave a quiet growl, sensing the tension in the air, but neither showed signs of disappearing.

The shared confusion spurred Jack into action once again and he strode forward, crowding in on Lurrelia. Instead of standing her ground, however, she gave him a panicked look and backed hastily away. Before she had gone five steps, she was consumed by a dull yellow glow and vanished from sight. The creatures hurried after her and Jack followed them without hesitation.

Only he failed to disappear as the aliens had.

His quick steps faltered and he turned, eyes seeking for something that he had missed, for some hint of the unnatural light through which the invaders had escaped. Seeing nothing, he looked to his companions, only to find them staring back with identical expressions of bewilderment.

"What the fuck was that?!" he asked uselessly. He glanced at his wrist strap only to find nothing of help in the readings there and so looked up again, eyes coming to rest on John.

The former Time Agent glared defiantly back at him. "Well, I can't bloody check, can I? You took mine away from me!"

Gwen moved over to the girl's body, checking her pulse and the fresh wound on her wrist. From her position crouched on the ground, she surveyed the macabre scene around them. "We need to get this cleared before morning," she said. "If people see something like this, they'll start to panic."

"I'll inform the police," Ianto offered, stowing his gun in his sling before retrieve the mobile from his pocket. "I'm assuming we wont be needing any of these remains taken back to the Hub."

"No," agreed Jack. "Nor the girl. I think Owen and Tosh will already have more than enough data to work with. The police can pass this off as an attack by a wild animal and hopefully that will cause people to stay indoors and out of harm's way until we sort all this."

Gwen made a dubious sound. "People never stay indoors when you tell them to."

Jack nodded absently, even as he attempted to contact Tosh again.

"Jack?" came Owen's voice instead. "Did you find her?"

"Found her and lost her again," the Captain told him.

"Shit."

"Yeah. I'm afraid we've got more casualties too. Another three killed by the unknown creatures and one more unconscious."

"With a band?"

"Yeah."

"Shit," Owen repeated. "I've got bad news too. One of the people we've got here died."

"When?"

"A few minutes ago," Owen sighed. "I'm still in the room with the poor bugger."

Jack looked around to find Gwen and Ianto already watching him, their thoughts undoubtedly echoing his. Could it be that simple? "What did he die from?" Jack asked.

"My money's on cardiac arrest. It was the latest admission, the guy whose wife had been mauled by those animals. His record shows he's got a history of heart trouble and the trauma of this band thing seems to have aggravated it. I'll perform a full autopsy of course, but I reckon it was simply the alien tech putting a strain on an already weakened system."

The Captain said nothing and when the silence dragged on Owen prompted him impatiently. "Jack? You still there?"

"One of the creatures just vanished, Owen," Gwen said. "Right when your patient died."

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Shit," Owen muttered once again.

* * *


	15. Chapter 15

* * *

Tosh was first into the Hub, ducking through whilst the large cog door was still rolling. She'd crossed the large room before her companions had even stepped inside and was already attaching wires to her prize as the door thudded back into place. Her excitement was infectious and, with nothing else they could do at that time, Jack, Ianto and John Hart followed her over to the small lab to watch her work.

They'd left Gwen back in the square, waiting for the police to arrive, and collected Tosh on their way back to the Hub. She had emerged from the hospital clutching a sealed package to her chest, the contents of which now lay amid a nest of cables in the centre of the brightly-lit bench.

"So, it just fell off, did it?" Ianto asked warily, voicing the question Jack had just been about to ask himself.

"We didn't realise at first," Tosh explained, head bowed to peer closely at the circle of metal. "The ends separated but the band held its shape against his skin. It was only later, when he was being moved down to the morgue, that Owen noticed it had come apart." She twisted to switch on the monitors behind her. "It undoubtedly happened when he passed away, but as we didn't see the precise moment it occurred, we've got more than one theory as to why it finally opened up."

"Not just because the guy died then?" Jack asked.

"It's possible, of course, but whilst attempting to revive him, he was exposed to other factors that may have played a part as well. Particularly the defibrillator."

"You think a large amount of electricity will disrupt it?" guessed Ianto, eyeing the open band hopefully.

"Perhaps. I was considering a similar thing before, when it was only you we had to worry about, although my plan was to pass a current directly through the metal itself, rather than your body."

"Would that make a difference?"

"It might do. Having this band now will let me run a few tests I didn't want to risk performing on you just yet and then I'll have a better idea of what we're dealing with."

Jack beat Ianto to the question this time. "But you _will_ want to perform some tests on Ianto?"

Tosh looked up from her work. "I wouldn't do anything that I knew would cause more harm," she assured him.

"It's okay," Ianto said, before the Captain could say anything else. "Someone has to be the guinea pig and it can't be any of those people in the hospital."

Jack grinned at him. "I knew you'd say that. My concern is that anything we try to do to you might be detected by Lurrelia."

"But that would surely apply to any of the bands, not just mine."

Jack blinked once and then nodded. "Good point. Although they're linked to those pets of hers, not their mistress, so it might be a less direct connection."

"She can't believe that we wouldn't attempt to remove it," Tosh said as she continued to fiddle with the wires. The screens around her came to life with information from the sensors, a mass of ever-changing numbers which made sense only to her. "She's probably been expecting us to tamper with it from the beginning."

She turned her back on them and fell silent, thoroughly focused on the readings. Jack glanced at Ianto beside him, raising his eyebrows in amusement at the woman's characteristic absorption into her work, only to find the younger man's gaze distant and a frown creasing his forehead.

Jack's shoulders slumped, troubled as he realised that he had seen that unsettled expression so frequently upon Ianto's face in recent days. Struck by the desire to clear that darkness from his lover's features, he looked away and slowly, stealthily, reached across until his fingertips grazed feather light over Ianto's knuckles.

Although his arm jerked at the touch, Ianto remained otherwise motionless, much to Jack's surprise. He glanced across again, curious at the lack of a reaction, and was pleased to see the frown had vanished from the Welshman's brow. In its place had descended a carefully stoic mask, almost entirely unreadable save the faint twitching at the corner of his mouth and the widening of his eyes.

Jack returned his gaze to the screens before it became obvious that he was staring, a knowing smile tugging at his own lips.

He brushed against Ianto's skin again, holding the contact longer this time and finding inordinate pleasure in the slight catch in his lover's breath. It was wicked, and he would likely pay for it later, but all he cared about at that moment in time was the heat that was growing in the small gap between their bodies and Ianto's stubborn refusal to respond to Jack's misbehaviour. It was all the more delicious for the fact that they weren't alone; a sport they rarely played thanks to busy schedules and Ianto's frustratingly rigid principles about fooling around during work hours.

It took all of his control not to smirk as he slid his fingers under the cuff of the young man's sleeve and encircled his wrist, just below the bandage. Ianto's pulse raced beneath the smooth skin and he trembled with the effort of keeping still whilst sweet agony rushed along his arm. Jack was sure it would be enough to make him crumble, to admit defeat and grace Jack with a look of exquisite reproach, but it did no such thing.

The tip of Ianto's tongue snuck out to wet his lips and he turned his head fractionally to the side, sliding heavy eyes across to meet Jack's own darkening gaze. Jack stared openly now, astonished as he watched Ianto's eyelids flickering slightly. A single muscle twitched in his neck, the sole indication of the pain he was feeling, and it seemed almost impossible that he could stand the lingering touch, when not long ago he could barely keep his hand upon Jack's chest for longer than a second.

Jack wondered briefly if it meant that the problem was slowly righting itself, that the pain had decreased and thus Ianto felt less distressed by his lover's grasp, but looking closer at those dark eyes, intense and unblinking, Jack _knew_ that wasn't the case.

The Captain swallowed and snatched away his hand, covering his abrupt motion by clearing his throat and taking a step backwards. "Okay, I can tell this is going to take a while," he said, his voice perfectly normal, in spite of the unexpected discomfort he was feeling, "so I'm going to go catch up on some paperwork. You two stay here and help Tosh."

Unable to meet Ianto's confused and needful gaze, he looked past his shoulder, unintentionally catching John's eye instead. His former partner had a beautiful expression of curiosity on his face and, as he strode away, Jack couldn't help but feel relief that Hart hadn't noticed what had just passed between himself and Ianto.

He hurried to his office and collapsed into his chair, mind whirling with the implications of the brief exchange with Ianto and the aching desire churning deep within his body.

* * *

Ianto wasn't entirely sure what had happened with Jack, nor did his usually shrewd mind seem to want to delve too deeply into the matter either. It was currently betraying him, dancing away from the incident with alarming ease so that he was unable to approach the problem from any particular angle, impartial or not.

It was also making no effort to stop his body from doing something incredibly stupid right then.

John's hand felt like ice around his wrist, a burning cold that robbed his skin of the memory of Jack's touch. He didn't think Hart had seen what Jack had done, but could it really just be a coincidence that the ex-Time Agent had seized hold of Ianto in the very same place that Jack had? He couldn't be certain and his thoughts refused to align in order to make a clear judgement, so he was left stumbling dumbly after Hart as he was dragged through the Hub.

It was only when they reached the same room Ianto had slept in all those hours earlier that he realised he had taken the lead somewhere along the way. He stopped in the middle of the room, blinking as his mind caught up and informed him that he and John had snuck away from the lab after it became clear Tosh was far too busy with her tests to realise if they were there or not.

A hard body pressed up against him and a puff of warm air gusted over the back of his neck. Ianto shuddered, watching in a daze as a hand that wasn't his own slid across his chest in languorous circles. He wondered how Hart had managed to escape his cuffs but was quickly distracted from the mystery.

"That was a good idea," John murmured, before touching his lips to the skin above Ianto's collar. "I was just aiming for a nook somewhere, but this is much better."

Ianto was turned in John's arms and a demanding mouth crushed against his, teeth nipping at his lips. Ianto groaned as the metallic taste of blood hit his tongue and he grabbed the back of the other man's head, deepening the kiss until his lips felt raw.

He pushed against Hart's body, desperate to get closer, his right arm throbbing fantastically with the constant pressure and movement. He was already hard, his vision blurred and his breath escaping loudly through his nose whilst his mouth was otherwise occupied.

Suddenly the kiss was broken and the jacket was eased from his shoulders, but Ianto barely noticed. His arm prickled with heat; sharp and cutting and _good_.

There was laughter in his ears and hands in his trousers. Strong fingers cupped his backside. "You're so eager, Eye-Candy," John said gleefully. "Who would have thought that prissy act hid such hunger?"

Ianto ignored the other man, the words washing over him without settling, and he pressed forward instead to continue the kiss, to increase the sweet torment and satisfy a need he had not been aware of possessing.

Hart relented, giving Ianto what he wanted without hesitation. His fingers dipped into the cleft of the young man's ass, stroking and teasing with the promise of what was to come. Ianto squirmed in his arms, seeking more...more _something_...and disappointment rumbled deep in his throat when he failed to get it.

There was satisfying surprise in Hart's eyes as he tumbled back onto the narrow bed, Ianto swiftly following and grinding down against him. The Welshman twisted impatiently, torn between the heat in his arm and his groin, and frustrated that neither ache was enough.

"Oh, yeah," John laughed, pulling Ianto's hips flush with his own. "Jack's taste has definitely improved."

Ianto scowled, the mention of Jack sparking something that clenched within his chest. He growled angrily and pushed himself up, moving so fast that it took Hart a moment to realise he was alone on the bed. He rose onto his elbows and watched in astonishment as Ianto paced across the room, his left hand wrapped around his cast.

Hart opened his mouth but closed it with a snap as the room's door swung suddenly inward, revealing Jack sporting a very dark expression indeed.

"Gentlemen," he said, faux joviality in his voice. "Did I interrupt something?"

John grinned, shifting his hips to draw attention to his groin and the bulge that was visible there. Jack looked down at him with one eyebrow raised. "Owen," he said, tilting his head to direct his speech back into the hallway, "take John back to the conference room and keep him there."

The doctor stuck his head around the doorframe, expression tense, as though expecting to find something that he really didn't want to see. He relaxed when it became clear there was no inappropriately exposed flesh in sight and moved forward to drag John from the bed.

Once alone in the room, Jack closed the door behind him and fixed Ianto with a curious look. "I know we've agreed that we can do whatever we want," he began, humour creeping into his tone, "but really, _John_?!"

Ianto glanced up and offered him a weak smile. "Sorry."

"Don't be," Jack told him firmly. "Just tell me it wasn't against your will."

Ianto blinked at him, having never even considered that notion. "He didn't force me in here," he said slowly, as though he wasn't entirely convinced of what he was saying. "But..." he drew in a deep breath, "...but I couldn't tell you why I let this happen."

Jack approached him, frowning. "You weren't in control of your actions?" He went to touch Ianto upon the arm but stopped at the last minute, fingers curling into an irritated fist in mid-air.

Ianto groaned. "Oh, please don't."

"But it is a possibility," Jack pressed. "You can't deny it."

"No, I can't." Ianto sighed and turned away. He took a few steps towards the back wall and then stopped, head dropping until his chin touched his chest. "I can't be trusted."

"What?"

"You were right to keep my gun from me before." He looked back at the Captain with wild eyes. "And you should have locked me up the minute I let John out." Jack shook his head in protest but Ianto went on quickly. "You know you should have, Jack, don't try to claim otherwise."

Jack clenched his jaw, unable to deny it.

"Although, I must admit, your trust in me is reassuring," Ianto added quietly, smiling softly to himself before his expression fell with realisation. "What if she makes me do something else? Something terrible? What if I hurt somebody?"

"I won't let that happen," the older man said, following him across the room.

Ianto looked at him dubiously and said nothing.

"I promise," Jack insisted, crowding Ianto until he was forced to take a step backwards.

"At least bind my hands," Ianto suggested in desperation. He lifted his left hand and then looked down at his cast, realising belatedly the impossible nature of his request.

Jack grinned. "I always suspected you'd be into that kind of thing," he said, voice thick with sudden lust. "You should have said earlier, Ianto, you know I'm willing to do anything you want."

"Jack..." Ianto began, only to fall silent as Jack moved forward again. He backed away until he hit the wall with a soft thump.

"Not being able to touch you is proving really..._hard_," Jack told him, expertly drawing out the last word.

Ianto's eyes closed briefly as his lover's breath swept over his face. He sensed Jack settling his hands against the wall on either side of his body and, although they weren't touching, he could feel the heat of the other man, scorching through the clothes John had failed to take from him.

He opened his eyes again and they sparked with mischievous light. "Are you saying you can't handle it, Sir?" Ianto asked.

"Oh, I'm perfectly capable of handling it," replied Jack thickly, gradually inching closer.

"But you'd rather have company?"

"I was thinking more of an active observer."

Ianto opened his mouth to respond but Jack unexpectedly rolled his hips forward, bringing their groins into brief contact before pulling back in one fluid motion. The young Welshman gasped as pleasure and pain warred for dominance, his fists clenching at his sides to keep from grabbing Jack and making him do that again.

"That's cheating," Ianto declared, narrowing hungry eyes at his lover.

Jack shrugged, grinning triumphantly as he repeated the move, slower this time and with more pressure. Ianto's control vanished and he grasped at Jack's belt, seeking to pull him closer still. A flare of white-hot agony consumed his entire body and Ianto realised, deep within a part of his mind not senseless with joy, that this was exactly what had been missing with John. The pain in his arm was one thing, but the effect that Jack had over him reached everywhere, searing into those dark little places Ianto usually kept tightly under control.

Sucking in deep and ravenous breaths, Ianto wished hopelessly that the moment would never end, but he was suddenly bereft of the contact as Jack pulled firmly away.

"You're easily distracted," purred Jack, making sure only air caressed the Welshman's ear.

"I was thinking of Captain Hart," Ianto immediately countered. He pouted, creating a delightful image of petulance that made Jack's smile broaden. He leaned in, so close that Ianto's lips tingled in anticipation.

"When I'm through with you, after all this is over, you'll never think of him again," Jack vowed, causing Ianto to shudder with the intensity of his promise.

Ianto arched forward, attempting to bring their bodies together once more, but Jack pulled away and shook a finger at him. "Ah-ah. We've got work to do."

He was out the door before Ianto was able to move, uncomfortable from his unreleased lust and annoyed that Jack would tease him at such a time. He knew he should be relieved that Jack had reacted so well; not only to the situation with Hart, but also to the possibility that one of his team was still compromised by the enemy, and yet, as he followed Jack into the hallway, his body thrumming with the echo of sweet pain and his mind already beginning to plot revenge on his tormenting lover, a smile touched his bruised lips that had nothing to do with relief.

* * *


	16. Chapter 16

* * *

Tosh tried to be discrete as she snuck a look at Ianto, only to discover that he probably wouldn't have noticed even if she'd openly stared at him.

He was seated beside the workbench in the middle of the room with his left arm on the smooth surface and his body completely motionless whilst she continued her tests. His blue eyes were fixed straight ahead, unfocused and distant as she worked. What he was thinking was unclear, though Tosh suspected it had a lot to do with Hart's earlier actions.

She wasn't sure how the former Time Agent had managed to drag Ianto away so quietly, but she felt guilty having not noticed they were missing until Owen and Gwen had returned from their various tasks. Owen's vulgar quips about what he saw suggested that the young Welshman had been doing something astonishingly unexpected with Hart and although Tosh refused to take Owen at his word, knowing him far too well to believe him entirely, she could tell something alarming had definitely happened.

Even in the worst of situations, Ianto managed a smile or a clever joke to lighten the mood. He always possessed a spark in his eyes that spoke of hope and determination, yet now he seemed to have withdrawn into himself, grey and tired as though the life was slowly leaking from his body. Tosh's heart ached, saddened that he was being subjected to such awful circumstances when he, out of all the team, deserved it the least.

She could safely say that none of them were saints. Their records were not pristine, far from it in fact, and each had made some rather dubious decisions in their time. And yet of them all, Ianto shone like a dazzling beacon of loyalty and trust. The incident with Lisa had been his one true mistake, but even that served to prove the strength of his heart. He had broken the rules out of love and devotion, not for greed or personal gain, and since then he had proven himself time and again as a constant source of strength the entire team could rely on.

He didn't warrant the pain he had suffered, or to be manipulated by a man like Hart, who only cared about satisfying his own physical desires and had no qualms about taking advantage of Ianto's present disorientation.

Ianto twitched suddenly, his entire body jerking as focus returned to his eyes. He looked down at his wrist and then back up at Tosh. "Are you sure?" he asked, baffling her for a moment by replying to something she had told him almost five minutes earlier.

"Yes," she said, pursing her lips unhappily. The results she had gathered from the broken band and the additional tests she had performed on Ianto had proven to be most disappointing.

"Well, at least we know what to do now."

A machine beeped somewhere behind her and Tosh turned to switch it off, grateful for the distraction. Ianto's tone was empty but his voice remained strong and she marvelled that it had taken him so little time to accept her final conclusion.

When she looked back at him, she winced at the dull cast of his eyes. "Ianto..."

"It's okay," he interrupted. "I wasn't exactly expecting an easy solution."

"But still..." Tosh persisted, aware she was resisting a course of action she had just proven to be their only option.

"Tosh, listen," Ianto sighed, taking her hand, "we think Lurrelia might still be able to influence me." She stared at him, horrified by the idea. "I've been doing things," he admitted. "Things I know I wouldn't normally do." He grimaced and looked away, shamed and uncomfortable. "So we have to do this. As soon as possible."

Tosh squeezed his fingers. "Are you all right?"

He laughed. "I don't know what I am at the moment."

"But nothing's happened that...?"

Ianto let go of her hand and she trailed off hesitantly. "I'd rather not talk about it," he murmured.

Tosh consented and fell silent, whilst he dropped his gaze to the surface of the desk, losing himself in thought again.

Throughout Toshiko's extensive tests, Ianto had found his mind drawn continually back to the situation with Jack. It troubled him, it _perplexed_ him, to the point that he could not spare any concern, even for Tosh's disturbing findings.

Ianto had never felt so out of control before, so unsure of himself, and when Jack had exploited the curious circumstances to tease and arouse him, he had never felt so alive. It was wrong, he knew, to enjoy the pain so much, but he could not deny the response that it had brought about within him. And although he knew that it had merely come about due to Lurrelia's possession of his body, the feelings that he was experiencing still seemed to be his own.

It was overwhelming, believing that he craved the physical agony; that he ached constantly for more, like an addict. Ianto felt ashamed of his actions and embarrassed that Jack had witnessed his unusual behaviour. The fact that Jack had played along only served to humiliate him even more and a small dark part of him hated his lover's worldly acceptance of such an aberrant behaviour.

Jack undoubtedly knew that Ianto didn't want things to be that way, but he had made no effort to treat the younger man as the twisted threat he had clearly become. Instead he seemed to be enjoying Ianto's discomfort and Ianto simply didn't know how to deal with that.

Footsteps announced Owen's arrival in the lab, where he eyed the scene with interest. "Everything okay in here?" he asked, putting far too much innuendo into his voice.

Ianto ignored the insinuation, but Tosh frowned as she began to disconnect the wires from Ianto's wrist. "It didn't work," she told the doctor.

"Fuck," Owen said bluntly. "I'd rather it hadn't come to this." He gave it some thought. "Not that I can't do it, of course," he declared, giving them both a confident smirk.

Ianto levelled a wry look at him. "That makes me feel so much better."

"You don't think I can bring you back?"

"That isn't reallythe problem."

Owen made a circling motion with his hand, encouraging Ianto to go on.

"It's the fact that I have to die so you can prove you can bring me back that's more of a concern."

Owen huffed, as though Ianto had suggested something foolish and naïve. "Dying is easy; it's reviving that's the problem. Fortunately you won't be aware of that part, so there's no need to worry."

Finally free of all the wires attached to his arm, Ianto stood and stretched, his back cracking loudly after so long hunched over the workbench. "I look forward to it."

* * *

The air was cold against Ianto's chest as he crossed the Hub. He was wearing only a pair of sweatpants borrowed from Jack, knowing that very soon he was going to need to be far more comfortable than his usual apparel allowed. He had even removed his sling and the twinges caused by each movement of his broken arm served to ground him as he reached the medical bay.

At the bottom of the stairs he stopped and looked around, eyes sweeping over the space as though he had never seen it before, as though he hadn't spent hour after hour cleaning, arranging and supplying it.

His gaze lingered briefly on the thick hatches set into the low curving wall and then slid to the sterile metal slab in front of them. This room was intended for the dead, and even though they frequently used it to tend non-fatal wounds, the fact that it was designed for autopsies was forefront in Ianto's mind.

"I knew I should have updated my will," he said quietly.

"Don't be so dramatic," Owen grumbled as he finished setting up his equipment.

"Oh yeah," Jack announced, appearing on the walkway with Gwen at his side. Between them they were carrying a thin mattress, likely taken from one of the Hub's small 'guestrooms'. "Don't let a little thing like death concern you."

Owen glared at the Captain. "Everything is perfectly under control."

"I don't like it," Gwen said firmly, letting go of the mattress so Jack could haul it down the steps and onto the gurney. "There must be something else we can do."

"We've tried every other possible solution," Tosh told her, following Jack with an armful of sheets and blankets that she began to arrange neatly on the bed.

"But we might _kill_ him," Gwen hissed.

Owen sighed loudly. "If we do, it'll only be for a few seconds, a minute at the most. Just until the band comes off."

"And what if it doesn't?"

"It will."

Tosh finished with the bed and hurried out of the way again, rejoining Gwen and leaving the three men together below.

"But it is a little extreme, right?" Gwen persisted. "Shocking him instead of just the band?"

"It's the connection between the band and the host that we need to disrupt," explained Tosh. "Simply sending a charge through the metal does nothing, because of its symbiotic link to Ianto's body." She received a blank look from the other woman and continued with a smile. "You remember the protrusions I showed you on the inside of the open band? Well they penetrate the skin, and the technology held within them connects the device to the living being. If we were to cut away the metal itself, it would do nothing because the vital parts are already in Ianto's body, protected from outside influence. But if we attack it _through_ Ianto, they have nowhere to hide."

Gwen frowned. "It can't be protected just because those little spikes are digging into him. They're still connected to the band, aren't they? Surely any electricity put through the metal would pass through to them."

"It would, yes, and that would have been enough if we'd tried it within the first thirty minutes of the band's activation, but due to an amazing bit of tech, we can't do that now," Tosh admitted, her voice lowering with admiration. "As time progresses, the band is intended to become a permanent part of the host's body. Basically it is designed to be absorbed into the flesh, starting with the protrusions, where it will infiltrate every system in the body until there are no means to remove it at all. By this stage, the process is too far along for anything else to stop it."

"Wait a minute, it's metal, how can it be absorbed?"

"You saw the photos of the original band we had stored in the vault, right?" Gwen nodded and Tosh went on. "It was flexible but it never retained any other shape than a flat strip of metal; the protrusions were not visible and the ends never showed signs of being able to join to create one complete circle. But clearly it can and if it's able to do that, then why can't it melt into the body as well?"

Pulling a face, Gwen nodded reluctantly. "It's mad, but I suppose it makes sense. In a Torchwood kind of way. Still, is shocking him the only option? It seems a bit...violent."

"We need the violence," Owen declared. "We need so great a shock to the system that the band has no time to adapt or bond further with Ianto." He clattered a few things around impatiently. "I could kill him nice and gently, put him to sleep like some old unwanted dog, but there's no guarantee that would be enough."

Everyone seemed to have forgotten that Ianto was standing there, half-naked, listening to them debate over his impending death. He had already gone through the situation in great detail with Owen and he knew that whilst there was a chance the shock wouldn't kill him outright, there was also a very big chance that it would.

And even though he would only be dead for a very short time if that happened, it was still death.

It was still, quite possibly, the final act of Ianto Jones.

His mind having drifted, the young man jumped when he realised Jack was standing directly in front of him. The conversation had died out around them, everyone looking expectantly at Ianto, but he had eyes only for the Captain.

"Are you okay?" Jack asked, holding his gaze so he couldn't hide the truth by looking away.

Ianto felt bare beneath those blue eyes and he knew that Jack could see the anxiety that was coiling low in his stomach. Nevertheless, Ianto nodded and Jack smiled, acknowledging the fact they were both aware of his lie.

The older man's fingers settled gently against his arm, upon the cast, and Ianto looked down, surprised and disappointed by the contact. He couldn't feel anything through the fibreglass and it was not nearly as reassuring as Jack intended the touch to be.

Perhaps sensing the problem, Jack's hand moved upwards, ghosting over Ianto's bicep and leaving a trail of fire in its wake. Their eyes met again and Ianto saw the humour in his lover's gaze, entirely inappropriate for the situation and yet so very perfect.

Reluctantly, Ianto looked away and moved silently over to the bed, smiling at the effort his colleagues had made to make the cold metal more comfortable. He hopped up onto the thin mattress, the simple act made surprisingly awkward with only one hand, and lay down. He was very aware of everyone watching him, sympathy in their eyes at what he was about to face and anger in the set of their mouths that he was forced to face it.

Owen began to connect to a heart monitor to his chest and then fixed an IV line into the back of his hand.

"Right," the doctor began in his professional tone, "I'll put you under general first of all, then-"

"No," Ianto interrupted. "I want to be awake."

"Ianto-"

"No."

Owen sighed and then shrugged. "Fine, it's your call." He continued to get Ianto ready whilst the young man stared up at the ceiling, unable to think clearly now that it was actually happening. During his discussions with Tosh it had made so much sense, but at the time it had felt more like a problem-solving exercise; a hypothetical question that hadn't really existed.

Jack touched his arm again briefly, indicating his presence at Ianto's side. The Captain was still smiling, reassuring and worried, and Ianto was struck by the emotion in his eyes. He knew Jack cared about his team, that he worried about them being harmed, but Ianto knew also that he kept himself separate from his mortal companions, never quite giving everything away to them. It was obvious he did it to protect himself, to save himself from the pain that would come when he inevitably lost them, and Ianto couldn't blame him for that; he doubted he would cope as well as Jack if he were in the same situation.

Ianto sometimes wondered if Jack was envious of the fragile shells of his companions, but as he lay beneath that intense gaze, willingly risking his own death, he realised there was only concern there, not envy.

Jack stooped, pressing a chaste kiss to his forehead and then stepping back to allow Owen the room to work. Ianto's eyes fluttered shut at the white heat that lingered on his skin, right where Jack's lips had touched him.

"You might feel a slight tingling sensation," Owen said dryly and Ianto scowled up at him, unimpressed. He had pulled a trolley over to the bed, on top of which sat an external defibrillator, and was holding the paddles in one hand whilst he used the other to activate the machine. A whine filled the air as the paddles charged and Owen positioned them in place above the pads he had stuck to Ianto's chest. "Ready?" he asked, looking first at Ianto and then Jack. When no one said anything, he began.

Ianto's initial thought was one of dim confusion, baffled as to why Owen hadn't shouted 'Clear!' before activating the paddles, like they did in movies. The fact that there was no one close enough to be touching him didn't have time to register, as a fraction of a second after he'd had the thought, his chest was speared with a blade of fire.

Arching into the blissful heat, Ianto was aware only of bright ecstasy before darkness fell upon him.

* * *


	17. Chapter 17

* * *

"Y'know, Jack, you really need to hire an interior designer for this place. Get some bright colours on the walls, better lighting...hey, maybe even fix the heating so I don't freeze my bloody balls off!"

Jack couldn't help but smile, his eyes dropping automatically to the other man's crotch. "You've had worse done to them," he pointed out.

John glanced down as well and grinned. "Yeah, those were good times," he said, sighing at the memory. "Speaking of which..." He approached the transparent wall and knocked on it. "How about you let me out of here?"

"Because you behaved _so_ well the last time," the Captain responded sardonically.

"I didn't do anything wrong!"

Jack laughed briefly. He knew his former partner wouldn't believe his actions had been out of order and, under normal circumstances, Jack would probably have agreed with him. In this instance, however, Jack was rather less inclined to forgive Hart. "You know he isn't in control of himself," Jack said. "Did you think I'd let you get away with taking advantage of him?"

John gave him an innocent look; one with which Jack was all too familiar. "If anyone was taken advantage of, it was me."

"Oh, is that so?"

"He was so insistent, Jack, I couldn't stop him." Hart swept a finger under his eye and sniffed dramatically. "I feel so used," he admitted in a trembling voice.

"I'm not even going to bother playing along with that one, John," Jack told him. "Fact is you saw an opportunity to piss me off and took it."

The ex-Time Agent shrugged. He began to wander around the small cell, rolling his shoulders and stretching his neck. "How could I resist?" he asked. "Your little fuck toy all hot and eager and throwing himself at me. I would have sprained something trying to stop him."

"And you think I should just let you get away with that?"

"Hey, if you have some kind of punishment in mind just get on with it. If not, then let me out and I'll be on my merry way." He paused thoughtfully. "Unless, of course, you want me to stick around and teach you and your boy a few new tricks I've picked up?"

Sighing, Jack scratched his head, abandoning the Fierce-Captain routine. "Why do we always end up in these situations? You get into trouble and I let you get away with it each and every time."

"Obviously it's because you love me," Hart said.

"No, John, I don't." He fixed the younger man with a serious look, hoping he would finally give up the pretence of such deep emotions. He wasn't sure why John believed he loved Jack, but he knew whatever Hart felt wasn't the same as other people's definition of love. He also knew that even if he humoured John and claimed to return those feelings, absolutely nothing would change, except perhaps an increase in John's gloating for having triumphed over the mighty Captain Harkness.

"Jack," Hart began, lowering his tone and drawing out the name, "don't be like that."

"No!" Jack shut him up with a raised hand. "That's enough, John, I won't hear any more about this." He waited a moment to see if the other man would protest, but he remained uncharacteristically silent. "This is what's about to happen. You're going to tell me anything you haven't already, we're going to get rid of your girlfriend and her pets, and then you're going to get out of my town. In addition to all of that, you're going to keep your hands to yourself. Do you understand?"

John pouted.

"Do you understand?" Jack repeated.

"Fine, yes, whatever," agreed John sullenly. "But I don't have anything else to tell you."

"I don't believe that for a second." Jack opened the door as he spoke and stepped back to allow Hart to leave the cell. "You always keep a few little details back as leverage. That's something I taught you to do."

John snorted. "You wish. You think I was still wet behind the ears when you got hold of me, but I had a hell of a lot more experience than you gave me credit for. Did you really never figure out I let you believe I was a mere novice?" He laughed with delight. "Oh, Jack, playing your doting student was so much fun. You thought you were seducing an innocent, wide-eyed young Agent with no skills, but I was the one playing you all along."

Jack's mouth spread into a wide grin. "You're kidding, of course," he said. "Didn't you realise? That wasn't seduction; that was a _lesson_. You had to wait an entire year for something you could have had right from the start, if only you hadn't tried to get away with that virtuous act. Instead I had you running around for me, trying to please your far more experienced partner, until you were practically shoving your ass in my face to get some attention." He sighed happily and then chuckled at the rather more forced smile now on John's face. "Shall we?" Jack asked, indicating the exit with a sweep of his arm.

John attempted to hide his defeat in a pronounced swagger as they left the block of cells, but the effect was compounded by Jack's continual laughter as they walked through the Hub.

* * *

Gwen frowned deeply to see John out of his cell again. "You said he was going to stay locked up until everything else was sorted," she reminded Jack.

She had a point and the Captain knew it. After first banishing Hart to the boardroom upon finding him with Ianto, Jack had swiftly changed his mind and told Owen to take him back to his cell. He had then informed Gwen that absolutely nobody was to speak to or even come within sight of him.

In only a few hours Jack had broken that command, and he was entirely unrepentant.

"Change of plans," he announced, dropping into a chair around the boardroom's table. John followed suit and leered at the two women seated across from him. "John's going to help us deal with Lurrelia and then he's going to leave."

Tosh tapped her PDA stylus against the polished tabletop. "Wasn't he supposed to be helping us before?"

"Yes, but this time he's going to do it without lying _and_ without trying to seduce anybody."

Gwen gave a short laugh, revealing her scepticism of that idea. "That'll be fun to watch."

"What did he lie about?" Tosh asked, ignoring the giggling woman beside her.

Jack raised an eyebrow at his former partner, directing the question at him instead.

"Not much," John admitted. "But it might not have been _quite_ so accidental as I led you to believe that Lurrelia ended up on Earth."

"Meaning she knew to come here?" Tosh pressed.

"Meaning I may have mentioned something of my last visit here. Oh, and the fact that you have tenuous control over a big honking tear in time and space."

"So you gave her the location of a planet ripe for invasion and the idea to use the Rift in order to bring her army here?" asked Gwen, no longer laughing.

John sighed. "I was just telling her about a few recent experiences, not writing her a list of worlds she should go look at. I didn't even know her people were searching for a new home."

Jack gave him a knowing look and Hart grimaced. "All right, she told me her planet was no longer able to sustain the Fam and I joked about a few places that were abundant in resources. But I was talking about the Earth of the present, not the past." He pulled a face. "I mean the present _then_, not now. This is the past to me, remember."

"That's not really very reassuring," Gwen told him. "You were trying to sell out Earth and whether it's now or in the future, it's still not acceptable."

"I didn't know this would happen," John said innocently. "She didn't mention it again and then she starting playing around in time, got lost and scared and ended up here. It's a coincidence, that's all."

"And is it a coincidence that she turned up only a few months after you left here?"

Hart hesitated. "That...does make it sound less coincidental."

The satisfaction on Gwen's face was apparent and she sat back, proud of her victory.

"What else do you know about the Quar-Meil?" Tosh asked, capitalising on Gwen's success.

"Nothing more than you."

Jack rubbed his forehead and slumped further down in his seat. "So you didn't know before we witnessed it that the anchor has to die for the band to release? And you didn't know the band's removal is the only way to send back the beings that were brought here by them?"

After a moment John smiled. "Yeah, okay, I did."

"Why didn't you tell us that?"

"It wasn't important," John said with a shrug. "It's not like you would even consider slaughtering those people, Jack. Not since you've gone soft anyway."

Jack didn't respond, his eyes drifting towards Gwen and Tosh. They looked back at him, guilt written across their faces. Hart seemed to notice the tension in the air and sat up straighter.

"You _have_ considered it?" he asked, surprised. "Well, well, well, maybe there's hope for you yet, Lover. If you want, I'm happy to help with the killing."

"That isn't going to happen," Jack said firmly, dropping a fist onto the table. "No one else is going to die."

John looked at the large screen at the end of the room, which displayed the tasks Tosh and Gwen had been working on before being interrupted. They were setting procedures into place to deal with the current situation; suppressing the sightings of naked hairy man-shaped beasts whilst encouraging the rumours of wild animals on the loose in the city.

It wasn't the most ideal way to handle the problem, but they were hard pressed to completely cover everything up whilst the aliens still roamed freely through Cardiff. The local authorities were doing what they could to keep people off the streets and clear away the scenes of carnage that marked Lurrelia's passing, and although this left Torchwood free to concentrate on the matter of the bands and their removal, it wasn't an ideal arrangement in terms of secrecy and panic-suppression.

"It looks to me like people are dying as we speak."

Gwen scowled at him. "We're doing everything we can."

"If you say so," said John, lifting his hands in mock surrender.

"Just get on with it," she ordered. "What else do you know?"

When Hart began to protest, Tosh interrupted him. "The link between Ianto and Lurrelia is different, isn't it? It's not the same as those between the animals and the comatose people."

"Of course it isn't, otherwise he'd have been out like a light the minute I put the Quar-Meil on him." He paused and considered his own words. "Actually, it's a shame that wasn't the case. It's been a while since I had a tumble with a _passive_ partner."

"So why is it different?" Gwen asked him, before Jack could react to Hart's offensive comment.

He wasn't surprised by his former lover's words, he had known John for many years after all, but considering all that Ianto had gone through recently, the idea that John might have taken advantage of his unconscious body was just a little too much of a stretch for his good humour. He fixed a hard gaze on the younger Captain, making sure Hart knew just what he thought of that particular suggestion.

"Because the connection is between a human and a Perscalla-Fam, not an animal. It's something to do with the fact that the creatures aren't entirely sentient whilst the Fam have a much higher mental capacity."

"That makes the link stronger," Tosh guessed, talking more to herself than anybody else. "And if it's stronger that explains why it can't be broken by death like the others."

Silence fell over the room, the three members of Torchwood lost in their own thoughts. John glanced between them curiously, but was kept from asking anything as Jack leapt suddenly to his feet and ran from the boardroom.

Gwen and Tosh exchanged a glance as Owen, unaware of the Captain's departure, continued to call over the comms for Jack to get back to the autopsy bay as soon as possible.

* * *


	18. Chapter 18

* * *

Ianto's body felt as though it had been battered all over; a glorious ache that rose and abated with each breath. He was accustomed to waking up with unexpected bruises after a tough day at work, but this was an entirely different sensation altogether.

He dragged in a lungful of air, savouring the pull on his sides and the way it made his head swim.

"I know you're awake," Jack's voice said, somewhere above and a million miles away. "I'm not going to let you lie in if I can't join you."

Ianto smiled weakly and attempted to open his eyes. One remained resolutely shut, whilst the other unstuck just enough to make out the blurred and yet familiar shape of his Captain leaning over him. "Did it work?" he rasped, his mouth so dry that it hurt to speak.

Jack's fuzzy head turned away briefly, looking across the bed and back again. "No."

Groaning with disappointment Ianto attempted to sit up, only to feel a hand press down firmly on his chest. "Don't even think about it," Owen warned him. "You're not going anywhere yet."

"Why didn't it come off?" Ianto asked. He lifted his left hand to look at the band still clamped around his burnt skin. There was no sign that anything had changed, not even the slightest hint that the electricity forced though his body had affected it at all.

"We don't know," admitted Owen.

"We _might_ know," Jack corrected, earning a curious look from the doctor. Ianto took some comfort in being able to recognise the emotion on his face; apparently his vision was clearing quicker than he'd realised. "John's been sharing some more information about the Quar-Meil. Seems he's been holding a few things back."

Owen grunted. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"The fact your band is linked with Lurrelia means it won't come off as easily as the others," Jack said, offering the young Welshman a rueful smile. "Sorry, Ianto, we didn't need to put you through that after all."

Ianto laughed weakly. "We would've had to try anyway, just in case." He licked his lips and shifted on the thin mattress, his limbs protesting the movement. Someone had tucked a blanket around him, the rough material scratching across his bare skin and he pushed it aside to peer down at his chest.

He wasn't sure what to expect but it was rather dissatisfying to find no mark of what had been done to him. "Are we sure this is why the other guy's band came off?"

"Pretty bloody certain," Owen replied. "One of the others died and it fell right off."

"The defibrillator was used?"

"Yep. Didn't save her though."

Ianto sighed.

Owen bustled away, possibly at the expression on Jack's face as he leaned closer to the reclining man. The Captain kissed him without any preamble and Ianto arched up to meet him. Jack's hand slipped under his head, supporting his neck, and causing another spike of pain that mixed perfectly with the feeling of their joined lips.

When they parted, Ianto was gasping and grinning. He felt strangely energetic, far more than he should considering all that had happened to him. His smile slipped a little as he noticed Jack's eyes.

"You died," the older man said, whispering as though it were a great secret meant only for Ianto's ears. "You died and for a moment I thought you weren't going to come back."

"We knew that was a risk, Jack."

Jack shook his head. "It shouldn't have been. I should have pressed John harder about what he knew."

"You would never have been able to trust what he told you. You still can't, in fact." Ianto tried to sit up again and this time Jack helped him, producing cushions from somewhere to prop him up on the temporarily converted bed. He groaned as his head span again. "I feel like I haven't quite finished dying yet."

_And it's wonderful_, he added silently to himself.

Ianto reached out to catch hold of Jack's hand and held it against his chest where one of the defibrillator paddles had been placed. The unnatural ache that his lover's touch created sparked his memory of the moment his chest had been set ablaze with electrical energy. He drew in a shuddering breath, relishing the stimulation until Jack gently tugged his hand away.

The conflict in Jack's expression made Ianto feel suddenly very uncomfortable. "What's the plan?" he asked, hoping to distract the Captain.

Jack grasped the change in subject eagerly. "We're going to need to get the bands off the others before confronting Lurrelia again. She's been gathering more and more of her 'pets', even faster than before. I think the first death surprised her and now she's trying to make sure she won't run out of protection."

"But no sign of any others of her race yet?"

"No, none at all."

Ianto frowned. "Doesn't that strike you as odd?" he asked, accepting the glass Owen handed him and taking a sip. The cold water washed through his mouth like frozen fire. "She's able to bring all those animals but none of her people have turned up."

"Perhaps she was lying about them coming here," suggested Owen.

"Or it might require a different process than the creatures."

Jack frowned. "When she came through, she needed both a link with Ianto and the Rift to be open in order to get here."

"No," Ianto said. "It was only her body that came through the Rift, her consciousness was already here. Maybe they need to send their minds ahead of their bodies."

"Meaning they could already be amassing in order to appear at the same time without warning." Owen paused to inject something into Ianto's IV line. "Then once they're in place, _poof _and we've got an army right on top of us."

"They'll need to force open the Rift again," mused Jack. "Which means they would have to come back here."

"Fantastic."

"It's not going to happen," the Captain said decisively. "We've had enough unwanted visitors in the Hub to last, oh, about a week, probably."

"If that," Owen muttered.

"We're going to get her before she has a chance to break in again, got it?" Jack glanced between them expectantly.

Ianto looked down at his bare chest. "Any chance I can get dressed first?"

* * *

The girls welcomed their weary and slow-moving colleague into the boardroom with a mixture of both relief and concern.

"Should he be out of bed?" Gwen asked reproachfully, frowning at Owen.

"Hey, don't blame me," the doctor said, lifting his hands innocently. "I was outvoted."

Ianto chuckled. "I don't recall you protesting all that much." He allowed Jack to pull out a chair for him, but the look he gave before sitting meant the older man didn't dare to push it in for him as well. Easing down into the seat, Ianto basked in the pain still resonating through various areas of his body, surprised that his brush with death had left such a widespread ache.

His right arm was back in a sling but he intended to get rid of it the moment they left the Hub. Even if he couldn't use the limb, being trussed up in the thin plastic made him feel more helpless than if it was just hanging uselessly at his side.

Plus the throbbing was much sharper when the injured limb wasn't held in place against his chest.

Disturbed by his own thoughts, Ianto glanced up, suddenly paranoid that the others would somehow know what he was thinking about. Only Jack was looking at him, an unreadable expression on his face that Ianto turned away from uncomfortably.

He wasn't entirely sure what to make of his recent uncharacteristic actions, but he was content to explain them away as both fatigue and the alien consciousness in his head. He only hoped that Jack wouldn't want to make an issue of it either when everything was sorted, as he really didn't want to have to verbalise some of things he had been feeling.

Or worse, the things he had been _yearning_ for.

Tosh began speaking, bring everyone back up to speed, and Ianto forced his mind back to the matter at hand, grateful for the distraction.

"I've managed to increase the sensitivity of the sensors to pick up Lurrelia's movements," she informed the room. "So we'll be able to locate where she is a few seconds after one of her portals forms."

That got Ianto's attention. "Portals?"

Tosh made a face. "For want of a better word," she explained. "She's somehow drawing energy from the Rift and using it to jump around the city. It's the same signature as we saw in Grange Gardens and at the Weevil nest, which explains why we didn't find any sign of anything coming through the Rift at those places. Anyway, it's only a miniscule amount of power, almost negligible really, which I assume is the only reason she hasn't been able to do anything big, like bring a large number of the animals here in one go."

Ianto nodded. He felt a little out of the loop after spending a good six hours or so unconscious after their unsuccessful experiment, but it seemed that the rest of the team had been struggling to contain the wave of trouble caused by the alien; fighting fires instead of solving the problem completely. Deep within his mind he felt a perverse thrill that his colleagues hadn't been able to fix everything whilst he'd been asleep, despite the fact that it would have made things so much easier to have woken up and found that things were in their rightful places once again.

"The police have been put on alert and I've been feeding them information about where she is, but they just haven't been quick enough to reach and contain her before she escapes," Tosh said. "The few times they've come across her, they've been distracted by the alien creatures whilst she vanishes. And of course they're also busy cleaning up after her attacks and trying to keep people off the streets as much as possible."

"Well," began Jack earnestly, "now we're back up to full force, and now we have an idea what we're dealing with, I want to get back out there as soon as possible." He looked around the room, making sure he had everyone's attention. "I want her gone, but we have to sort out her pets first. According to the police reports of their encounters, they've proven resistant to tranquilizers and they can take more than a couple of bullets and keep moving."

Owen choked a little on the coffee he was drinking and at first Ianto thought he was just surprised by Jack's words, but the glare the doctor gave the mug in his hand made him think otherwise. He wondered idly who had been given kitchen duty whilst he'd been out of it. "Hang on," Owen said. "They can't be killed?"

"I didn't say that, I said that they're strong enough to handle a few wounds."

"So some have been killed?" Ianto asked, warily eyeing the cup that had been placed in front of him.

"No," Jack answered.

"Actually, yes," Tosh said and the focus of the group swung back to her. Her head was bowed over her PDA, intent on the display.

"I thought the police hadn't had any luck?" Jack said. "Tosh, if you say they've finally managed to bring one of those things down, I'm going to come over there and kiss you."

Tosh gave him a wan smile. "Don't get up just yet. They _have_ killed three of them over the past hour," she lifted her hand to wave the Captain back down into his seat, "however three of the people with bands flatlined in the same hour. The doctors saved one, but the other two died."

There was a moment of grim silence as everybody's fears were confirmed. Eventually it was Hart who spoke up, exasperation in his voice.

"Oh, come on! What did you bloody expect to happen?" he demanded. "You've been working under the assumption that killing the humans would kill the animals, so you _had_ to figure that it would work the other way too."

Gwen glared at him. "We saw one of the creatures disappear, not die, so we couldn't know for sure."

"And now you do." John shrugged and then yawned. "You ready to give in and accept my plan yet?"

"You mean killing those innocent people?" Gwen snorted in a rather unladylike fashion. "Yeah, we're definitely up for that."

The look of delight on Hart's face lasted for a heartbeat before he realised she was joking, but everyone had seen it and the mood around the table briefly lifted at his expense. Until Jack spoke again.

"We are going to kill them," he said solemnly, "but we're going to bring them right back. Owen, you need to return to the hospital and convince whoever needs convincing about our plan. I don't care how you do it, just make sure they realise it's the only way to wake up those people. The rest of you are going to come with me."

"So we're just going to run around the city hoping we bump into an alien?" Gwen asked, eyes wide with bemusement.

"Nooo," said Jack. "We're going to _drive_ around the city, whilst Tosh fiddles with things and predicts Lurrelia's next jump."

Everyone looked at Tosh who straightened in her seat, a little startled by the attention returning to her so quickly. "I think I'm getting close to finishing the prognostic calculations, if that's what you're asking."

"Uh, when you say all of us are coming with you..." Ianto started to say, only to trail off as Owen scoffed loudly at him.

"Yeah, because we're going to leave you alone in here to run amok again! She'll get you to open the Rift and lay out the red carpet for her mates the minute we're through the door."

The young Welshman blinked. "I didn't mean me," he said placidly. "I meant Vera over there." He nodded towards Hart and received a cocky grin in response.

"I thought you were ignoring me, Eye-Candy," John drawled. "Playing hard to get, despite all the evidence to the contrary."

Ianto pointedly didn't respond to that.

"He didn't do anything stupid last time," Gwen admitted. She sounded reluctant and Ianto completely understood why. "But maybe that was because he had the cuffs on. We should restrain him again." She gave the former Time Agent a wide grin, very pleased with herself.

Hart leered at her. "You could have just asked to tie me up, Sweetheart."

"Trust me, I wasn't planning to let him roam around out there without a leash," Jack said, unable to keep from smiling at John's increasing enthusiasm at their conversation.

"Oh, this is just perfect!" he declared. "It's like all my wildest dreams come true. Only without the rellick oil. Or the kamberries. Or in fact most of the things in my dreams." He made a thoughtful noise. "Okay, it's more like a dim shadow of my wildest dreams, but I'll take it!"

Owen turned to Tosh, determined to steer matters away from their visitor's disturbing fantasies. "Do you really think you can predict where she's going to turn up next?"

She opened her hands in a sweeping gesture. "I can't imagine why not."

"I get it, there's a pattern to her movements, right?"

"Not really, no."

"Come on, admit it. There's a pattern, but instead of telling us, you're going to pretend you can _foresee _where the mad alien is going to hop through the Rift next."

Tosh glared at him over the rims of her glasses. "And why would I want to do that, Owen?"

"To show off, of course."

"Children," Jack said, putting no effort at all into his chiding.

John cleared his throat. "You know," he drawled casually. "I can tell where she's going to go quite easily."

Everyone gave him a dubious look, but rather than explaining, he merely lifted his right hand slowly from the surface of the table, waited until they were all looking at it, and then just as slowly brought it down again to point towards his bare left wrist.

Jack groaned loudly, realisation and frustration exploding out on the same breath. "Dammit, John!"

"You didn't ask," Hart responded with a shrug.

"I shouldn't have had to," the Captain growled. He stood up and eyed his former partner. "If I give it back to you, I'm going to have to put some limitations on it."

"For which you'll need my authorisation code."

Jack dragged a pad of paper across the table to rest in front of John and then dropped a pen on top of it. "Go on then."

John gave him a cheeky grin and bent his head to write what appeared to be a long and intricate string of symbols. Finished he handed it back to Jack with a flourish and stood, stepping close into Jack's personal space. "Can I drive?" he asked.

"You don't know how to drive."

"I'll learn on the way."

"You're not driving."

John pouted. "Spoilsport."

"Right." Jack waved the bit of paper with Hart's code on it. "Everyone get ready to go whilst I sort this out." He strode over to the door, calling back over his shoulder as he went, "Ianto, with me."

* * *


	19. Chapter 19

* * *

Jack knew that Ianto was following him to the office, even without looking behind or listening for the footsteps just fractionally out of sync with his own.

A long time ago he'd had his senses artificially heightened – one of the perks of being a Time Agent – and although it had only been a minor tweaking, it was one of few things about his stint with the Agency that he hadn't come to regret. And yet, even if he hadn't had the work done, Jack suspected he would still have been able to feel Ianto's presence behind him.

It was like having a blazing sun at his back, a fire so intense that it did not burn but rather caressed his skin. The heat burrowed into his spine, digging its way through with white hot fingers that left trails of scorch marks in their wake.

The door closed softly and Jack let out the breath he hadn't been aware of holding. Ianto moved closer, a single step, and Jack shuddered slightly, turning in order to cover his body's betrayal. He studied the young man's familiar face, not entirely sure when he had began to feel Ianto's proximity in such an unusual way. It seemed familiar, but he hadn't a clue why. All he could be sure of was the need roiling within him; desperate and raw, it was like nothing he had ever encountered before.

The lack of control was very unlike him, he knew that, but the knowledge did nothing to quell the hunger.

"I understand," Ianto said, startling Jack out of his daze.

The Captain hesitated, bewildered. "What?" he asked dumbly.

"I know what you're going to say and I understand."

"What am I going to say?" Jack asked, honestly wishing to hear the answer. He had called for Ianto to follow him without thinking, unconsciously unable to stand to be away from the brightness of the young man, and hadn't planned what he might say once they got there.

Fortunately it seemed that Ianto had been less blinded by his own presence. "When we confront Lurrelia we're probably going to have to kill her. And that means I'll die too."

Jack nodded slowly; the thought had occurred to him earlier whilst considering their next move, but he hadn't gone out of his way to encourage it. Facing the death of his team was an everyday chore, although normally the precise method by which they might die was not foreseen, and something that they avoided rather than pursue quite as actively as they were seeking Lurrelia's demise.

Over the years he had become accustomed to facing danger and exposing his colleagues to the same level of threat, but he never truly got used to the surprise of actually losing someone. Perhaps it was some twisted side-effect of his own immortality; a block in his mind which made him forget that when others died they tended to stay that way.

Jack shook his head, unhappy to even consider the idea. He was well aware of their mortality, that just wasn't something he could overlook, and he hated to consider that he could become so nonchalant about it.

"Jack?" Ianto said uncertainly, seeing the troubled thoughts in the older man's eyes.

"Everybody who joins Torchwood is made aware just how risky the work we do is and they always agree that it's necessary. If they didn't then they wouldn't even have been considered as a potential member of the team." Jack looked away. "But it isn't often we take an action that we know will kill one of our operatives."

Ianto gave him a small smile, a knowing glint in his eye. "Jack, we're always doing things we know could kill us. I say _could_ because they often fail to do so. Look at it this way, I'm not in a coma like the others and the band didn't come off either when I...died...so we don't actually know for sure that her death would do anything to me."

"The likelihood of that-"

"Is slim, yes, but I'm willing to take the chance. It's in my contract, in fact, so I'm not quite sure why we're having this conversation. You of all people know that sacrifices sometimes have to be made."

"I do know," Jack said. "I just..." He frowned, still not entirely sure what he wanted to say. Ianto continued to look at him expectantly, his expression open and calm, despite the possibility of what might soon happen.

Jack growled, giving up on vocalising and stepped forward to grasp Ianto's biceps. The Welshman immediately began to tremble, his pupils dilating until his eyes were almost completely black.

"Fuck," Ianto swore desperately and reached out to pull the other man closer. His hand slid up Jack's arm to his shoulder, fingers clutching at the fabric of his shirt. Their lips met with furious passion, the craving so strong that Ianto wondered how he had lasted so long without Jack's touch.

And judging by Jack's enthusiasm, he felt much the same way.

Ianto moaned into the Captain's mouth, thrilled by the pain and rapture combining throughout his being. He pressed forward, aligning their bodies for the maximum possible contact, and ran his hand around to Jack's back.

The older man's hands moved as well, encircling his waist and holding his body still. Jack rocked his hips, bringing the evidence of his arousal against Ianto's own hardness. He smiled briefly before his lips returned to more important matters.

Ianto broke the kiss with a loud gasp. "If I survive," he began only to be silenced by Jack's mouth again. He pulled away resolutely, scowling at his lover's behaviour. "If I survive her death, your touch might not hurt anymore."

"I hope so," Jack declared absently, nuzzling at the young man's throat. His tongue lingered over the racing pulse in Ianto's neck.

"But..." Ianto struggled to get the words out, uncertain how to phrase it, not entirely positive that he wanted to. "But I...I need you. Right now."

Jack froze and Ianto feared he'd somehow said the wrong thing. The Captain straightened, disentangling himself from the shivering body in his arms. Ianto sighed in relief and disappointment at the loss.

"Ianto..." Jack said.

"Jack?"

He hesitated, torn between lunging forward and backing off entirely. "Oh, God," he muttered to himself. "We don't have time."

"Make the time," Ianto said firmly, closing the gap between them again and grasping one of Jack's braces.

The Captain laughed at the commanding tone, so rare and yet so pleasurable to hear from that particular member of his team.

"It's my dying wish," the young man went on quietly, blue gaze resolutely locked with Jack's.

Jack stopped laughing, the smile fading away as though it had never existed. Something shifted and hardened in his eyes and he took hold of Ianto's shoulders, turning and walking him backwards until his legs hit the edge of the desk. Ianto sat heavily, surprised, and looked up as Jack pushed his knees apart and pressed in close.

Warm fingers cupped his face, tilting it further and their lips met again. Jack's free hand slipped to the back of his neck and the plastic sling fell away. Ianto flung it aside gratefully and moved his arm out of the way, spreading his legs to allow Jack nearer as they continued to kiss, deep and intense.

Jack began to explore his body, hands leaping from shoulders to thighs to chest, unpredictable in their motions. "What do you feel?" he asked against Ianto's mouth.

"Agony." Ianto's muscles quivered beneath his palms. "Like pins and needles, all over. Don't stop!"

The Captain had no intention of doing any such thing, even though every logical voice in his head was screaming that he should not enjoy the whimpers of pain escaping Ianto's lips.

"Jack," the young man murmured, impatient and utterly oblivious to the fact that it really wasn't the time for this. He reached for the buttons on Jack's shirt but his hand was knocked gently away.

"No."

Ianto began to protest, only to fall silent when Jack's fingers began working at his belt. He gave a brief, eager laugh and was kissed soundly. In no time at all, Jack had Ianto's trousers unzipped and his erection freed from the confines of his underwear. The Captain teased the sensitive skin with fleeting torturous strokes and someone groaned loudly. Jack was sure it had been Ianto, but he wasn't willing to bet too much on that.

The cock in Jack's fist twitched, Ianto surging upwards to increase the friction. He tried to get up from the desk only to be pushed firmly back into place.

Jack pulled away and chuckled down at Ianto. "What do you want?" he asked in a low voice.

"You already know," Ianto retorted.

"Say it."

Ianto rolled his eyes. "You. I want you, Jack. Now get on with it."

"That's not very precise, Ianto. Where's that brilliant attention to detail of yours?"

"Brilliantly forgotten until you get a bloody move on," Ianto said, trying to stand once again.

Jack's eyes flashed and he held the younger man in place with heavy hands on his shoulders. When he was sure that Ianto had got the message, he dropped smoothly to his knees, fingers trailing over anything he could reach as he went. "We don't have enough time," he said mournfully. "Not for what I want to do to you." He punctuated the statement with a brief kiss to the tip of the erection bobbing in front of his face.

A sharp inhalation was the only response he received, a noise he would normally have taken as a sign that he should stop – a position he rarely found himself in – but he didn't even hesitate, darting his tongue out to taste the liquid beginning to leak from the younger man's cock.

Ianto lifted his hips, seeking more, and Jack took the opportunity to sharply tug the trousers and underwear further down, exposing more skin for his hands to investigate. At the same time he swallowed as much of Ianto's hard flesh as he could, tongue massaging the thick vein running along its length.

"Ah!" Ianto declared, sounding surprised and uncomfortable. Jack's rhythm faltered and fingers instantly found their way into his hair. "No, don't stop." Even as he spoke his body was moving, trying to pull away, but Jack pursued, obeying the insistent pressure of the hand on his head.

The heightened sensitivity of Ianto's body fascinated Jack. He had never experienced a situation like it before, and although he hated to think that he was hurting his young lover, he simply couldn't stop himself; not when Ianto was encouraging him with such conviction to keep going.

And especially not when he was making those delicious sounds.

On the next pass, Jack expertly dragged his teeth along Ianto's erection, causing the Welshman's breath to catch sharply. The muscles in his thighs tightened beneath Jack's kneading fingers and though he wasn't exactly keen to hurry things along, Jack was extremely pleased by the speed with which he had brought Ianto to the edge.

Deciding to forgo the temptation of teasing the young man, Jack snuck a hand down to cup Ianto's testicles, squeezing the tender orbs within his fingers. Ianto came violently in his mouth, crying out louder than Jack had expected. It was almost a wail, a keening sound, and Jack immediately jumped to his feet and enveloped Ianto in his arms, swallowing his seed almost as an afterthought.

"Hush," he whispered, worried for the first time as Ianto wheezed against his chest. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He became aware of the other man's squirming and drew back just enough to look down. Ianto took the opportunity to place a hand against his chest, pushing him back, gasping for air as if he had just been submerged in ice cold water.

Jack took the hint and stepped back whilst Ianto remained where he was, eyes glazed and distant. Then he laughed, almost hysterically. Jack tensed, surprised and unsure what to do.

"Oh, God," Ianto panted. "Oh. God."

The pleasure in his lover's voice brought a smile back to the relieved Captain's face. "Good?" he asked smugly.

Ianto gave him a broad grin. "The best."

Jack straightened, ego bolstered by the compliment. He preened a little and then realised that Ianto was still sitting there, half-naked. His own hunger rekindled and he moved forward, capturing Ianto's eager mouth and sharing his taste between them. Ianto began to shake instantly, even more fiercely than before and Jack forced himself to back off again. He took a moment to examine Ianto a little closer, noting the sweat and flushed cheeks upon an otherwise pale face, the dark and distant gaze and the increasingly frantic breathing.

"We need to get going," he said quietly. Reluctantly.

Ianto blinked up at him dumbly. "No. We need to stay and finish."

Jack clenched his jaw. He had never seen Ianto this needy, never seen him so mindless or happy to ignore the urgency of the current threat they faced. "No, we have to stop Lurrelia."

"But..." Ianto cast his unfocused eyes around the room, looking for something but clearly not sure what precisely. "But you haven't..." He stretched out to touch the rather obvious bulge in Jack's trousers but the Captain sprang back, out of his reach.

"Ianto!" he said, adopting the firm, no-nonsense tone he rarely had to use on his own team. "We have to stop Lurrelia."

The young Welshman hesitated, a frown drifting across his brow. He blinked a few more times and then seemed to collapse in on himself. "Yes," he murmured. "Yes, you're right."

Ianto stood up, his legs wobbling, and Jack felt proud of having achieved that with so short and simple a blowjob. He instinctively moved forward to steady him but Ianto held up a hand. "You probably shouldn't touch me." He pulled up his trousers, avoiding Jack's gaze as he fixed his clothing as best he could with only one hand.

Jack frowned, concerned, until Ianto glanced up and smiled wickedly at him, eyes bright with the clear intention to finish what they'd started after dealing with Lurrelia.

If he survived the encounter.

* * *


	20. Chapter 20

* * *

Owen left the SUV at a fast pace, bending his head against the rain that had started up again. The bag he'd swiftly packed back at the Hub was slung over one shoulder and it bashed loudly against the automatic doors as he squeezed through the gap between them, too impatient to wait for the entry into the hospital to fully open.

The noise he made caused roughly half the people in the waiting room to turn towards him; so bored sitting in their uncomfortable plastic seats that any activity was a welcome distraction. The other half of the people had either adopted the distant stare of those experienced with queuing or had fallen asleep in a position their necks would punish them for when they woke up.

Bypassing the desk in a flurry of cold air, he hurried though Accident and Emergency without slowing. Someone called out half-heartedly as he went but he ignored them and increased his pace, going otherwise unchallenged as he headed further into the heart of the hospital; the precise reason he had chosen the always busy A&E as a point of entry, rather than daring to run past the formidable women protecting the main entrance. He'd had just one confrontation with them a couple of years earlier and it was enough to make him vow never to take that route ever again.

Owen rounded the corner into a ward he knew housed a few of the comatose victims. One of the beds he and Toshiko had visited the previous day was being made with fresh sheets, the bed's occupant nowhere in sight, and Owen clenched his jaw, cursing silently at the obvious implication.

"Hey," came a voice from behind him and Owen glanced away from the empty bed to find a woman glaring at him with the same kind of animosity that he had long accepted as an occupational hazard for Torchwood employees.

"Hi again!" he said brightly, not really feeling it. "I've come to save your bacon."

The doctor – mid-forties, pouty, and more than attractive enough for Owen – dubiously raised an eyebrow. "You weren't much help the last time you were here."

Owen leered at her. "I like to take my time." She remained unimpressed and he shrugged in defeat. "I've found a way to wake these people up, but you're not going to like it, Dr...?"

"Fitzgibbon."

"Dr. Fitzgibbon. I'm Dr. Owen Harper, nice to properly meet you. Anyway, you're not going to like it."

"And why is that, _Mr_ Harper?"

He ignored her attempt to insult him and flashed a brief and unfelt grin. "It's best if I show you."

* * *

Ianto didn't even try to keep from rolling against Tosh as Jack threw the SUV around each and every corner in the road. They had just dropped Owen off, which had brought a sigh of relief from both himself and the two women crammed into the back with him. It was cosy enough with three of them, but with one body over capacity there had been far too much accidental touching of places that shouldn't be touched whilst out on a mission to save the world.

Unless, of course, Jack had been in the back with them; he would probably have found some reason for it to be absolutely vital to the survival of the human race.

Ianto smiled faintly at his own wandering mind and glanced over at the readings scrolling across Toshiko's PDA. She held John Hart's wrist strap in one hand, fingers gripping the alien object tightly as though it held all the answers to the universe. Ianto knew she had been itching to get her hands on Jack's for some time now, even though he claimed all the exciting things it could do had been deactivated against his will, so to be able to use Hart's was a dream a come true for her.

He watched her working, completely oblivious to the manic driving of their Captain, even when she slid along the seat and jostled Gwen against the door, causing the other woman to yelp in surprise.

"Any change?" Jack called back over his shoulder and Tosh shook her head.

"No, it's still saying she'll appear on Dawnet Street."

Jack nodded and accelerated again, eliciting a whoop of pleasure from the man seated beside him. Ianto glared at John's profile, ignoring the spike of lust his traitorous body felt when his eyes drifted momentarily to the leg the former Time Agent had propped up against the dashboard. The position immediately drew attention to Hart's crotch, and even though Ianto couldn't really see anything from his position behind the driver's seat, his imagination was doing a very good job of making up for his impaired vision.

Ianto was angry at the other man, angry that he had used him so carelessly, but he was even more furious at himself for allowing Hart to do so. He knew he hadn't been able to fight the desire; _logically_ he knew that Lurrelia was behind those feelings, as well as the lack of control and resistance, but it still felt like something he should be ashamed of.

He certainly felt ashamed that he could vividly remember the other man's touch, his taste, his _smell_, as though they were still entwined up against the wall down in the cells. Ianto grimaced and looked out the window instead. It was a false pleasure and he hated that it got in the way of the far more real and enjoyable memory of what Jack had just done for him. He smiled again, heartened by the lingering sensation of heat around his groin, a prickling upon his skin that he wanted to itch and rub and bare to Jack so that he could bathe it again with that mobile tongue of his.

"I've got it!" the woman beside him exclaimed and Gwen gave a muffled grunt as an elbow was thrust into her side.

"Blimey, Tosh!" Gwen said. "I think you've given it to me too."

Tosh looked at her, baffled, but apparently far too excited to worry about it. "I've worked out the frequency of the Rift energy she's tapping into." She hesitated and held up the wrist strap. "Well, this device did most of the work, but now that I have frequency I can disrupt it and stop her escaping straight away."

"Perfect," said Jack, his voice low with dark intentions. "She'll have to stick around and watch whilst we ruin her plans."

They drove on for a few more minutes before Gwen yawned loudly. "Anyone else feel like they haven't slept for a week?" she asked, sounding far too calm for the situation.

No one answered her and Ianto returned to watching Cardiff flash past in a blur. It was late afternoon but the sky was so dark that it could easily have been the middle of the night. The streetlamps had already been alight when they'd left the Hub, the thin drizzle glowing in their orange halos, and the roads were oddly quiet for the time of day. It seemed that all the stories about wild animals on the loose in the city was doing wonders for keeping people out of harm's way and, although Ianto was surprised that it had worked so well, he was more than glad that it had done so. He made a mental note to remember that the next time Torchwood needed to clear the streets in short notice.

There came a sudden flash of light through the windscreen, highlighted against the dull clouds and partially hidden by a row of houses, as brief as lightning but originating not from the sky but the ground instead. Jack slammed his foot to the floor, making the SUV jump forward through a narrow intersection and around one last corner into a housing estate. The vehicle slewed to a stop, the brakes screeching in protest of Jack's rough handling, but there was no time to worry about the damage the frantic journey had done as they all peered ahead to the scene in the road before them.

It was clear the light had signified Lurrelia's arrival through one of her portals, and the size of the flare was obviously due to the fact that she had brought most, if not all of her 'pets' through it with her. They littered the street, a group far larger than Ianto had expected and he wondered for one fearful moment if there could be people in the city linked to the animals who _hadn't_ been found.

The thought caused him to freeze with his fingers on the door handle, panicked suddenly by the idea that even if Owen managed to get the Quar-Meil bands off all the patients in the hospital, there might still be some of the alien creatures left behind to defend Lurrelia.

He turned away from the door to point this out, only to find that everybody else had already left the vehicle. Cursing his lapse in attention, he flung himself out after them. "Jack!"

Any response the Captain might have given him was interrupted by Lurrelia. "You can't be serious," she asked, laughing. "You should be enjoying your last few days of freedom, not wasting your time on something that you cannot change."

"Are you so sure about that?" countered Jack.

"Oh, you think by killing a couple of my pets that I will stumble and fall? In case you hadn't noticed, I have an endless supply." The alien female smirked and looked around. There were dozens of the animals surrounding her, filling the residential street. Those standing between her and the humans were watching the newcomers warily, prepared to defend their mistress with their lives, whilst the others were gradually spreading out, edging towards the houses on either side of the road.

There were already faces at the windows of some of the buildings and Ianto's instincts kicked in, swiftly taking note of their location and the number of houses with potential witnesses inside. The clean-up for the entire situation was always going to be on a larger scale than normal, but he had hoped that this confrontation might end up somewhere rather less public.

Lurrelia was still laughing. "Unless you've come to your senses and are offering yourselves as hosts?"

"Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" Gwen declared sarcastically. "Us on our backs, drooling away."

Hart jolted in surprise beside her, impressed by her words. "I'd _love_ that," he said, eyes roving over her body.

She glared back at him. "We'd be in comas."

"And?" John asked with a shrug. He turned to the alien. "Her first, yes?"

"Dearest John," Lurrelia sighed. "I did so enjoy our time together, even if it was all a deception. It's not too late to change sides again, you know, if you'd rather not be torn to pieces. I promise to only do things to you that aren't entirely fatal."

Hart looked as though he was seriously considering the offer.

"He's not going anywhere," Jack growled at her. "And neither are you. This ends now."

As though somehow choreographed, one of the creatures abruptly shuddered violently and let out a pained howl before vanishing into thin air.

"Oh, I am _good_!" Jack said, grinning proudly. "Next it will start raining naked and exuberant young men." He looked up at the clouded sky expectantly.

"Captain Harkness," Lurrelia said darkly, drawing his attention back to her. "You should not make light of your dire situation. Very soon everything you know, everything you care for, shall be destroyed."

"I don't think so."

"Then you are a fool. A heartless fool who deserves all that he gets." She waved a hand and a group of the alien creatures sprang forward towards the humans. Unable to do anything else, the members of Torchwood lifted their guns and fired at the animals.

After the initial failure of the police to kill the beasts outright, the team had come well prepared. Their weapons were loaded with bullets which Tosh had made herself; a design she had been working on for some time but had yet to face a large enough enemy on which to test them. The intention was for the specially cast bullet to enter a body with the minimum of fuss, driving through skin and bone until reaching the rather more delicate innards, whereupon they would explode, causing a great deal more internal damage.

It still took a number of the new bullets to take down one of the animals, but only a half-dozen had lurched forward to attack and they were easily taken care of. When the last fell, the silence hung for only a second before another creature further down the street yelped and disappeared.

Lurrelia's expression had grown thunderous. "You're killing your own," she said. She attempted to grin, but it was clearly forced. "It only makes my mission easier."

"We'll see about that," Jack muttered, glancing over at Tosh. She nodded in reply and he levelled the Webley at the nearest of the surviving animals, ready for another attack.

Ianto glanced down at the dead beast in front of him. By shooting the alien he may well have caused one of the coma patients to die, but before leaving the Hub, Jack had made sure that everybody understood the risk in what they were doing. When he had then asked if they were still happy with the plan, all had been in agreement that the chance was worth taking if it meant more lives would be saved in the long run.

Of course, having Owen at the hospital already meant that he would be on hand to help with any patients who suffered as a result of the animals being killed. That fact had been of great encouragement to the team and allowed them to take down the creatures without apprehension.

Ianto looked away, pushing the thoughts from his mind. He had to be strong, resolute in his decisions, lest compassion and doubt cloud his judgement and allow Lurrelia to take control of him again. He could already feel the temptation to go to her, the bright lure of her presence calling to something deep within him, something dark and terrible, and it was only his determination to stay with his colleagues and friends that kept him from moving.

"We're saving more than you're killing," Jack said, interrupting Ianto's thoughts. "And we're going to save a hell of a lot more before this night is out."

Lurrelia laughed bitterly. "Always the hero, eh, Time Agent? My, how the nightmares must torment you."

Jack frowned, and the others glanced between themselves. It was beginning to sound as though Lurrelia had a real problem with Jack, and not just because he was standing in the way of her plot.

"I'm not a Time Agent," Jack told her warily, having come to the same conclusion. "Nor do I have nightmares."

"Then you must not sleep," Lurrelia spat, "for I could never rest knowing so much blood was on my hands."

"What blood?" Gwen asked. "He's stopping the bloodshed that _you've_ caused."

The alien woman sneered at her. "Poor child. You should count yourself lucky that you get to die thinking this man is your saviour, you shall never know what atrocities he is capable of. If I hadn't come to this world he would have destroyed it, brought it to the brink of ruin and then disappeared, abandoning you to struggle in the carnage that he leaves in his wake."

Ianto looked across to see Jack shaking his head in denial. "Listen, lady, I think you've mistaken me for somebody else. Perhaps it's another impossibly handsome man that you're looking for." Jack spoke lightly, a grin firmly in place, but Ianto could tell that she had struck a nerve.

"Oh, no, I know perfectly well who you are, Jack Harkness, even if you do go by another name these days." Her expression had hardened into one of hatred and Ianto realised with a start that he could feel that same burn of anger igniting in his chest. He frowned and drew in a deep, calming breath, attempting to suppress the emotion that he knew wasn't his own. Lurrelia's dark, empty eyes flickered towards him briefly and she bared her teeth in a mockery of a smile. "I am surprised that you did not recognise my name," she said, turning back to Jack. "But perhaps you are merely pretending, so as not to reveal the truth to your precious mortals. You cannot tell me the word 'Lurrelia' means nothing to you."

Jack stared at her, a mixture of dread and confusion on his face. "Should it?" he prompted cautiously.

"In the past I would have been known as Lur-Oal-Eeli..."

Jack's eyes widened. "That's what the Fam used to call the executioners of criminals."

"So you do remember my people and their customs."

"I spent time with them, but it was long before they reached your level of development." He scowled, impatient. "Look, I thought you came to Earth in search of a new home," he said, shaking his head in confusion. "But now it sounds like you think I've done something wrong by you. How about you get your story straight before we go any further."

The alien glared at him, lips pursed sourly. "You play with me. Not only did you set in motion the cause of my people's decline, but you insult me now by denying your crime."

"Crime?" Jack protested, but she ignored him.

"Well I'll stand for it no longer, _Captain Harkness_. I know you cannot die, so I am going to do to you what you did to my people; I am going to destroy your world. I am going to take from you all that you possess." She looked over the people standing around him, eyes glittering with fury. "And all that you care for."

Before anybody could respond, she lifted a hand and the air shimmered behind her, a yellow glow lit the area, just like the previous portal, but as the creatures began to move towards it seemed that a loud crack of thunder filled the air. It didn't stop rumbling, however, growing in volume as the glimmering brightened into a blazing white light.

Ianto threw his arm up in front of his eyes and turned away. The deafening noise of false thunder reverberated through his body and he struggled to keep his footing as the ground bucked beneath him. He became aware of a hand on his back, a hand that gripped his flesh like cold iron, and he was propelled away from the light, but then the world tipped and he was flying through the air, lifted by an explosion even louder than the rumbling, screaming sky above.

* * *


	21. Chapter 21

* * *

Jack shook his head to clear the ringing from his ears, dislodging a layer of dirt that had settled over him as he did so. He blinked grit out of his eyes and struggled to his feet, already able to determine where he would develop bruises. His back felt warm from the blast and he absently hoped that it hadn't burnt his greatcoat; it was already torn at the hem, but at least that damage was repairable.

Surveying the scene around him, Jack wiped a hand across his face, spreading the grime with a sweat-slicked palm. The portal's eruption had opened up a deep crater in the middle of the road; the low brick walls on either side were crushed into little more than rubble, the plants in the small front gardens flattened and charred beyond recognition.

Jack squinted and tried to peer through the dust still clogging the air. He could just make out the looming shapes of buildings along the street, so it was possible that little damage had been done to the houses themselves. He let out a sigh of relief, glad that anybody inside would have been safe.

"Tosh," he began, feeling her grasp his coat and use it to stand. "Anything you'd like to say?"

She looked up at him with wide eyes. "I didn't mean for it to explode," she admitted shakily. "I may have been a little over zealous..."

"Maybe," Jack agreed, glancing past her to see Gwen clambering upright. He opened his mouth to ask if she was okay, but swung around sharply at the sound of movement ahead.

One of the animals was shifting underneath the rubble and Jack narrowed his eyes, trying to gauge whether it was an immediate threat or not. After a low moan and a fruitless effort to move, it relented and slumped down again, twitching beneath the great clumps of tarmac on top of its back.

Jack relaxed and turned to Ianto, only to find he wasn't at his side where Jack had expected him to be. Glancing down, he realised the younger man was still on the ground, where the Captain had pushed both him and Tosh moments earlier. Dread rising, Jack dropped into a crouch and touched his fingers to Ianto's neck. For one dark moment he couldn't feel anything, but then blood throbbed against his fingertips and he let out a quiet but relieved laugh. "Ianto," he said, attempting to brush the dust from the other man's face. "C'mon buddy, time to get up."

Ianto stirred beneath his hands, mumbling something that Jack couldn't hear. He smiled gently. "Now really isn't the time to stop being a morning person, Ianto."

"Not morning," Ianto protested thickly, levering himself up on one hand. Jack caught him under the elbow and helped him the rest of the way. "Everyone all right?"

"All limbs present and accounted for," Jack told him cheerfully. "And a pile of trapped beasts to boot. I just wish Tosh had told us quite how disruptive she was going to be."

He flashed a grin up at her, but she didn't seem impressed by his joke. In fact she was examining her PDA closely, tapping at it with the kind of illogical impatience that one adopts when a gadget refuses to behave itself. She sighed, frustrated, and dropped her hand to her side, only to lift it and the other back up to be examined, as though they were completely alien to her. "The wrist strap!" she cried, spinning towards Gwen and gesturing with empty fingers.

The other woman caught on immediately and turned to her side. She cursed loudly. "He's gone."

Jack didn't even bother to feign surprise. He'd expected John to attempt an escape far earlier and had frankly become suspicious when his ex-partner behaved so well throughout the few days he was with them. Still, Jack smiled, he wouldn't get far. Not after he'd disabled the second override John thought he'd kept well hidden.

Gwen was rather more concerned, however. "Sorry, Jack. I was sure he was right here."

"It's okay. We've got more important things to worry about." He waved a hand at the scene of destruction before them. "It looks like most of the creatures were either killed in the explosion or have disappeared, hopefully thanks to Owen, but I want the rest tied up before they regain their senses. Then all we have to do is wait whilst Owen finishes up at the hospital."

Ianto and Gwen turned towards the SUV to retrieve the restraints stored there, but after only two steps they were brought back around by Tosh's exclamation of surprise.

At the far edge of the debris, Lurrelia was dragging herself free of a heap of shattered bricks, having apparently been thrown clear of the blast and into the garden wall of a nearby house. Her clothes were torn and her face darkened by dust, but the biggest change were her eyes; no longer flat and empty, they shone now with fury and hatred.

"You bastard!" she shouted at Jack. "You can't get away with this, I won't let you!" She cried out a word in a language that definitely wasn't from Earth and the few remaining creatures roused themselves, with obvious pain, from the wreckage. "You deserve to die for dooming the Perscalla-Fam, but I will settle for destroying your world instead!"

The animals began to lurch forward, slowed by their injuries, and the humans lifted their weapons once again.

Jack took a step towards the enraged being. "Just hold on a minute. Whatever you think I did to your people, you're wrong. I spent a few days gathering intel on a developing society and then left. Not nearly enough time to 'doom' it as you claim!"

"Days?" Lurrelia repeated scornfully. "You were there for a _year_, Captain, and you did more than watch, you situated yourself right in the middle of the council."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "I find that hard to believe, I've never had any desire to be involved in local politics."

"And yet you charmed your way right to the top, didn't you? You swindled and lied to get as high as possible and then you convinced all those unsuspecting people to do what you said. You convinced them to _change_."

"Jack?" Gwen said. "What is she talking about?"

The alien creatures were still shuffling across the mess of broken brick and tarmac, but they were getting steadily closer and none were disappearing due to Owen's work at the hospital. Jack shot the closest beast in both knees and it crumpled to the ground, causing another to fall over it. He waved away Gwen's question. "What change?" he asked Lurrelia instead.

She glared at him. "Why do you still persist to deny knowledge of your crime?"

"Because!" Jack shouted and then hesitated, taking a deep calming breath before starting again. "Because, I don't remember being there for longer than two days. That's the truth." He did, however, have his suspicions about why that might be, but he was not about to admit that out loud; especially not to a homicidal alien.

Lurrelia was silent, her brow creased in thought. She seemed to have finally realised that he might not be lying. And it galled her.

"What change do you think I instigated?" Jack asked calmly, not giving her the time to gather herself.

"You introduced what you said was a vaccine, made it compulsory that every child receive it." Her frown deepened as Tosh took down another of the creatures that got too close. "From that first generation onwards, my people began to change. They lost the things that made them the Fam."

Jack began to open his mouth to voice his confusion, but noticed Lurrelia's gaze sliding to one of her pets. "Them?" He was unable to control the grimace that flashed across his face. "They turned into _them_?"

"Whoa, hang on!" Gwen cried out. "Are you trying to say those things were once like her?"

"The Fam were exceptional people," Lurrelia said with a snarl. "Much like you precious humans, but now they have been corrupted, turned from their bright future and made to scrabble in the dirt like animals."

"How could that have happened?" Tosh demanded. "You would have to alter their DNA, which isn't as simple as giving a child an injection."

"I didn't need to know _how_," came the impatient retort. "All I cared about was who had done it."

Jack glanced to the side to find Ianto looking at him. Somehow he knew that the young man shared at least some of his suspicions about what might have happened and Jack wasn't at all comfortable underneath that knowing gaze.

He resisted the urge to look at the women on his other side, just in case the same expressions were present upon their faces. "I'm sure I wouldn't have done something like that," he said, hearing the doubt in his own voice. "Why would I want to change them?"

Gwen was the next to shoot and she winced remorsefully as the creature hit the ground with a thump. "What I don't understand is why you think it was Jack."

"And why aren't you like them?" Ianto added quietly. He had dropped his left arm to his side, Jack noticed, gun pointed downwards and index finger away from the trigger.

Lurrelia looked at each of them, chest heaving with the effort of breathing. She was hurt, and badly, but anger was keeping her on her feet; vengeance providing the strength to stay upright. "Because I am an aberration," she said, gaze settling on Ianto. "As a child something happened to me, something that woke my mind from the animal instincts that condemn my kindred, and as I matured I realised that I could do things that the others couldn't. I was able to see thoughts that weren't my own. The beings that enslaved my broken people had minds full of more than the simple drudgery of servitude and I sought to escape." She smiled, baring her teeth in a very feral manner. "Which is when I found I could also inhabit the bodies of others, if I so desired."

"You took someone else's body?" Gwen asked, stunned, even after all she had seen in her time working for Torchwood.

"I couldn't very well start a new life looking like that could I?" Lurrelia demanded, pointing at one of the beasts.

Jack flinched, realising with a start that they were still approaching and readjusted his aim. He didn't want to shoot them, they were weak and injured and following her command to attack purely because they had no other choice. On top of that, they were still linked to living human beings who could be saved if he gave Owen more time.

The Captain mentally calculated the distance between the remaining eleven alien creatures and his team and decided there was still a chance. "You went back in time to see your ancestors," he guessed. "Was it by accident or on purpose?"

Lurrelia clenched her jaw. "Accident."

"You saw that the Fam were once very different and sought out the reason why."

"And found you," she spat. The rage visibly built up once again within her, her face flushed and her body shaking with a surge of adrenaline. Her dark, glossy eyes slid to Ianto and Jack turned reluctantly in the same direction.

The Welshman had lifted his weapon again, but it was pointed upwards now, directly beneath his chin.

Behind him both Tosh and Gwen gasped and Jack threw out an arm to stop them from getting past him. His own gun had moved automatically to settle on Lurrelia and he spoke to her, whilst holding Ianto's fearless gaze with his own. "You'll die as well," he said, inwardly proud of his young lover's strength in showing no alarm at his situation.

"No, I won't," Lurrelia announced serenely. "You tried already, remember? Our connection is different from the others."

"Then I'll kill you and he'll survive."

"Wrong again," she said. "Kill me, he dies. Kill him, I live."

"That doesn't make sense," protested Gwen. She had moved forward, edging towards Lurrelia and the creatures.

"It doesn't have to. It simply is."

Ianto blinked, eyelids moving lazily. The gentle rain that Jack had forgotten was falling had caused streaks to appear in the dirt on the young man's face. It looked almost as though he were crying, but Jack knew that wouldn't be the case; Ianto was far too resilient for that.

Jack glanced down at the gun in the other's steady hand. He couldn't be sure of getting the weapon away in time, nor could he be sure of Lurrelia's insistence that Ianto's death would not cause her own.

But he was damned if he would let Ianto give away his life for no reason.

"What do you want?" he asked Lurrelia.

"For you to suffer," she replied easily.

Jack bit back his initial response. "Anything I can do to change your mind?"

She sneered, face twisting unpleasantly. "Nothing."

Ianto's body jerked, his muscles twitching violently as he struggled to battle the alien's control. Jack watched, fascinated, as his jaw clenched and then softened, lips curling up into a malevolent smile that the handsome face was never meant to wear.

Jack shifted his weight, preparing to leap at the Welshman in the hope that he could disarm Ianto before he was able to pull the trigger. Behind them another of the animals cried out as its connection to the Earth was severed and in the same moment, when Lurrelia was distracted Ianto whirled suddenly away.

Surprised, Jack had no time to react as Ianto slammed his broken arm forcefully into the remains of the low wall beside him.

The young man roared in pain, expression twisting and body folding in on itself. Hunched over for only a second, he straightened with a loud gasp, eyes bright with renewed alertness as he threw himself forward, away from Jack and straight towards Lurrelia.

"Ianto!" Jack called, echoed by both Tosh and Gwen. Ianto ignored them, scrambling carelessly over the rubble to reach the alien.

The two creatures nearest to Ianto turned to intercept him, only to crash to the ground as they were struck by Torchwood's modified bullets.

"Ianto, get back!" Jack shouted. He knew that Ianto was fighting her manipulation, refusing to let her hurt Jack by making him shooting himself, but that knowledge would not make the Captain stand by silently as his lover hurried towards his death. There was still hope that Lurrelia's claims had not been entirely true, however Ianto's reckless decision to attack her directly was quickly compromising the possibility of his survival.

The gentle rain had made the shattered road slick and Ianto slipped, coming down onto one knee and instinctively trying to catch himself with his right hand. He cried out again in anguish but pushed himself back up, even faster than before, and lunged for Lurrelia.

The alien's eyes widened as Ianto aimed his gun at her, surprise clear across her petite features. Clearly she hadn't expected such strength from the man, for she took a sudden step backwards.

"If I die, so do you," she reminded him desperately.

Ianto gave a brief and hollow laugh. "We all have to die some time."

Jack winced and moved to hurry after the Welshman. If only that were true.

"He killed my people," she shouted. "How can you deny me this retribution?"

"For one thing, you haven't proven he's responsible," Ianto said, coming to stop a couple of paces away from her. "And secondly, your people are still living, so you can't very well claim him a murderer, can you? Who are you to say that this wasn't just a case of natural progression?"

"Progression?!" Lurrelia exclaimed furiously. "You think we were _meant_ to devolve into these creatures?"

"It is possible," Ianto replied evenly, using the distraction of her anger to inch closer.

She realised his trick, however, and sneered at him in contempt. A glow began to form directly behind her, weak and barely visible in the dull light. Jack dashed forward, recognising her attempt to open another portal.

"Tosh!" he called back over his shoulder as he scrambled towards Ianto. "Don't let her get away!"

He couldn't hear any reply she might have given, for a sudden howling filled the air, the sound of a fierce gale along with the pull of an even stronger force.

Jack yelled a warning that was consumed by the wind and then lost his footing in the same spot Ianto had stumbled over only moments earlier. He urged himself on, trying to regain his balance by simply moving faster, but even as he sped towards them, he saw Ianto lunge for Lurrelia. There came a flash of intense light, lasting barely a second, and then heavy darkness fell over the street.

Jack skidded to a halt, blinking to clear the lingering blaze of white that hovered everywhere he looked. Silence roared in his ears and cold fear pressed in on him from all sides.

The streetlights had gone out, as well as the glowing windows in the houses further along the road. Even the headlamps on the SUV had been extinguished and the sky above seemed darker than before. The only thing which convinced Jack that he hadn't stepped through the portal himself was the sound of Gwen's voice.

"Jack! Jack, are you still there?"

"I'm here," he called back. Turning in a circle, he moved tentatively forward, hoping he was heading in the same direction as before.

"What happened?" Gwen asked. "Why have all the lights gone out?"

"It was the portal," said Tosh. "She opened it using a different frequency to the ones she's made before and it clashed with the obstruction I'd set up. It created a sort of tiny EMP, knocking out all the electronics in the immediate area." She sighed. "I didn't think she'd be able to use other frequencies, but I suppose I should have prepared for that just in case."

"It's not your fault, Tosh," Jack reassured her. His eyes were gradually adjusting to the gloom and he could make out vague shapes around him. He was also positive that the sky had lightened again, though he might have just imagined that it had grown darker in the first place. The rain, however, was a constant throughout, and it stung his eyes as he searched the area for sign of either Lurrelia or Ianto.

Gwen clambered over to stand beside him, grabbing his arm as she wobbled on the unstable ground. "Are they...?" she asked, taking his lack of motion as a bad sign. It was, but not in the way she thought.

"I don't know," he admitted quietly. "They both went through the portal."

* * *


	22. Chapter 22

* * *

Ianto was falling.

He knew it wasn't possible, because there was a solid surface beneath his feet and it wasn't moving at all, yet still he was falling.

Heated air moved swiftly around him, pushing against his face and making it hard to open his eyes. There was something in his left hand, something ice cold and living. _Lurrelia_, his mind provided and he nodded, pointlessly, agreeing with his own astute conclusion. He turned his face away from the wind so he could open his eyes properly, but no matter which direction he looked, he was buffeted by the air.

A high-pitched screaming filled his ears and suddenly he was thrust forward by an unseen force...

* * *

"Where is he?" Gwen asked softly, sounding almost afraid of the answer. She'd asked it twice already, but as she pushed the buttons of her mobile, the words seemed to emerge without thought. She lifted the phone to her ear and listened, biting her lower lip and tapping her foot impatiently.

Tosh had managed to get their comms back and the SUV was functioning again, but that was mainly because they had been designed to withstand such eventualities. The streetlamps were still dead and a few people had tentatively ventured out of their homes to ask why nothing was working. Gwen went off to get them back indoors and she returned having spun an encompassing lie about there being a gas explosion which had knocked out the electricity at the same time. Tosh had frowned at that, clearly unimpressed by the flaws in the other woman's story, but she'd said nothing and instead continued trying to contact Owen.

Once he had the SUV lights back on, Jack went over the wreckage carefully, checking the bodies of the animals which had apparently been humanoid many millennia earlier. He tried not to think about the accusations Lurrelia had flung at him, but his thoughts kept drifting back to the amicable people he had met whilst assessing the Perscalla-Fam.

As he recalled, the mission had been an easy one, and at the time he had considered it rather dull and far beneath his abilities. However, after spending the two days free to do whatever he wanted, so long as he provided the Time Agency with a competent report, he had decided that it hadn't really been all that bad.

Afterwards, however, upon his return to the Agency's base, he'd been commanded to remain on site and train some of the new recruits. It was during that time he had awoken on morning to find the date had mysteriously skipped ahead by two years.

Jack glared down at the ruined ground and kicked a chunk of tarmac at the hole in the middle of the street. He hated thinking of the way his employers had betrayed him. Some of his colleagues had been close enough for him to call them 'family', but after losing a part of his life without explanation he could no longer find it within himself to trust any of them at all.

It had been the reason he'd struck out on his own, abandoning an existence he had never expected to lose and descending into crime and deception. Throughout it all, he had hoped to one day find out that there was an adequate reason for what had happened to him, but if Lurrelia had told the truth and he had been responsible for the changes experienced by the Fam, he wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to remember it. He simply couldn't understand what might have caused him to do such a thing, even if it had been on orders from the Agency.

Back at the SUV Gwen growled in frustration and Jack glanced up in time to see her flinging her phone into the back seat. "Nothing!"

He frowned at her, suspicious of her behaviour. "Did you just try to call Ianto's mobile?" he asked, unable to stop himself from smiling at the way her face reddened. "That'd be a yes then."

Gwen shrugged self-consciously. "It was worth a shot."

Jack laughed, allowing his thoughts to be diverted from the past without much complaint. "It was," he agreed. "But I'm not entirely sure he had it with him anyway."

"Where could they have gone?" Gwen asked Jack, as though he hadn't been listening the other three times. "The other portals let Lurrelia jump around the city, so surely they're somewhere close by. Shouldn't we be out there looking for them?"

"We wouldn't find them," Tosh announced, looking up with panic in her eyes. "I've just got the link back with the Hub's sensors, but there's no sign of the portal reopening elsewhere."

Gwen shook her head. "That can't be right."

The other woman shrugged and glanced away uncomfortably, hiding her fear. "I've checked twice."

Jack could feel Gwen's eyes upon him but he didn't turn to meet them. He'd suspected the portal wouldn't lead to a different part of Cardiff; felt it deep in his bones that Ianto was somewhere far, _far_ away. But now that Tosh had confirmed his hunch, he simply didn't know what their next step should be.

"Check again," he said quietly, sweeping his gaze over the wreckage. "And get hold of Owen."

"Ah!" Tosh said. "He's already on the line." She flicked a couple of switches and the sound of ranting filled Jack's ear.

"Owen?" he said, and the stream of curses cut off abruptly.

"Finally! What the fuck is going on out there?!"

"Calm down, Owen," Jack said. "We've been a bit busy."

The doctor spluttered. "Busy! Tosh put me on bloody HOLD!" He audibly drew in a deep breath. "You know, we really should invest in some muzak," he suggested, sounding more than just a little serious about it.

"Sorry, Owen," Tosh said sincerely. "I was distracted."

"What's happened?"

"It's Ianto," Jack told him, kicking aside another lump of rubble to find a pair of clouded yellow eyes looking up at the dark sky. "He fell through one of the portals trying to catch Lurrelia."

"And hasn't reappeared again," Gwen added glumly.

It took a moment for Owen to react. "Shit," he growled and Jack nodded, despite the fact that the other man couldn't see him.

"How are things there, Owen?" Gwen asked. "We had no choice but to shoot a few of the animals."

"Yeah, I got that impression," he replied sourly. "The folks here couldn't understand why so many victims started arresting at the same time. Still, we managed to save some of them, and removed quite a few of the bands the other way too."

"How many survived?"

"Let's see...at last count there were thirty-four comatose people admitted to the hospital with metal bands burnt into their wrists. We woke six of them up with the defibrillator and brought back another five after you shot their counterparts. There are still four in comas and the docs here are just getting to work on them now. They've finally realised that I was right, it's just a shame it was a bit too late."

"God," Gwen whispered. "We killed nineteen innocent people."

"It's more than that." Gwen looked up sharply at Jack, eyes bright with moisture and guilt. "There are too many bodies here to account for the thirty-four at the hospital," he told her. "Lurrelia must have enslaved others that haven't been found yet."

"And now they'll all be found dead, thanks to us."

Tosh took Gwen's hand and squeezed her fingers; a rare display for her but one that Jack could fully understand. If he'd been able to move from his position in the middle of the carnage he would have done the same. Instead he wrapped himself in his role as the leader of their team. "Owen, make sure you save those last four. Girls, we need to start shifting these creatures. As soon as the police get here, we'll have them to cordon off the street and keep prying eyes away whilst we work."

"But we can't fit all of these in the SUV," Gwen pointed out with a frown. "It'll take us hours to make enough trips."

"That's why the police are going to transport them instead." Jack smiled grimly at her surprise. "We wrap up the bodies to hide what they are, then get your old mates to do the grunt work and dispose of them for us."

"Oh, come on now! They would never do that!"

"It's true," Tosh offered, heading for the rear of the black vehicle to find their stash of plastic sheets. "Or don't you remember that incident at the Pilling's Ale warehouse?"

Gwen pursed her lips in thought. "Was that when some machinery blew up and caused a flood or something?"

"Ernac businessmen out on a jaunt," Jack corrected. "Developed a real liking for ale but apparently their species shouldn't be exposed to yeast. They literally doubled in size and went on a rampage through the warehouse, breaking open all the containers and squashing quite a few of the workers before we managed to get there. Your lot moved all the bodies to a secure location for us, including a handful of very drunk, very corpulent men, all without question."

"Bloody Torchwood," Gwen muttered, though she smiled immediately after, shaking her head in amusement. Jack smiled back at her, holding her gaze, and thus saw the moment her thoughts turned to other matters. "Jack," she began carefully, "what she said, about what you did...is it true?"

The Captain turned away to conceal his scowl. "Leave it be, Gwen" he said.

"But-"

"I don't know and I don't want to talk about it. Especially not now, okay?"

"Jack-"

"OH!" Tosh exclaimed, interrupting Gwen's response. Her face was lit by the glow of her PDA, her eyes wide and her lips spreading into a wide grin. "There's another portal opening!"

* * *


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: Woo, sorry for the delay folks, major RL drama got in the way of the rather more enjoyable task of finishing this story. But here we go with the last two chapters...

* * *

It was all Ianto could do to keep from dropping to his knees. Blinding light and a shrill whining pressed in around him, suffocating him with sensory overload. Time had long ceased to have any meaning and, although he consciously moved through the strange landscape, he did so without truly being aware of his surroundings.

There was a trail of sorts, a slightly darker line upon the ground that twisted through the bewildering luminosity, and Ianto followed it; not because it was a pathway, but rather because the indistinct figure of Lurrelia was stumbling along it, trying to get away from him.

She was clearly suffering as much as he was, though she was the one to have brought them there, and thus he was able to keep pace with her unsteady steps. He pursued her for hours, or so it seemed to him, the world passing by in a haze and his head aching from the constant light and sound.

Ianto called out to the alien he chased; first for her to stop and then for her to at least explain where they were. He didn't really expect a response and wasn't at all surprised when she ignored him, but he refused to let her escape when she was his only hope of returning safely to Cardiff.

His chance came when she unexpectedly tripped over something that Ianto couldn't see and he lunged forward, grabbing her with his free hand. She struggled, screeching with fury and clawing at his face like an animal. They both tumbled to the ground, rolling over each other as they fought to either escape or detain their foe. Ianto's hold on her broke twice, but he was able each time to grasp her again before she could slip away.

The cacophony of sound increased as she screamed in his ear and he grabbed her about the throat to stifle her shrieking...

* * *

...and darkness fell between one blink and the next.

It came as a shock after the previous brightness and the abrupt silence rang in his ears like the aftermath of an explosion.

Ianto's left hand had clamped itself over his eyes without him noticing – and without it doing any good at all - and his body curled in on itself, bringing him into a foetal position on the ground. The entire right side of his body ached but it was nothing compared to the pounding in his head.

He wasn't sure how long he lay there, he only knew that moving was not an option; at least not unless he wanted to vomit all over himself.

A beam of light slid over his face and he squeezed his eyes shut behind his fingers, moaning at the new pain that blossomed in his temples. Footsteps followed the light, swift and urgent, and then there were hands on his shoulder, his chest, his face...

Pulling away from the frantic touches, Ianto rolled weakly to his knees, just in time to turn his head and throw up onto the wet soil beneath him. One of the hands returned, this time to his back, and began rubbing in soothing circles.

"Ianto?" It was Jack's voice and Ianto had never felt so glad to hear it. "Ianto, are you hurt?"

He gave a shaky laugh and then spat, cringing at the sour taste left in his mouth. "No," he said, slumping onto his back again, away from the mess. He looked up at the dark sky and recalled the last time he had unwilling lain out in the open, right before everything had started to fall apart.

"What happened?" Jack asked. "Your heart's racing."

"Not sure," Ianto said slowly as exhaustion swept over him. "I was somewhere...somewhere else." He opened his eyes wide to keep from falling into the tempting comfort of sleep. "Is everyone okay?"

Jack grinned down at him, one hand cupping the young man's cheek affectionately. "We're fine. Tosh and Gwen are taking care of the chaos Lurrelia left behind and Owen's sorting out the last of the coma patients."

"Still?"

"Yes, still. You were only gone a couple of hours, Ianto."

Ianto squinted up at him. "Really? Oh."

Jack frowned at his confusion but didn't press the issue. "We saved fifteen of them," he told him instead, voice quiet with remorse, and Ianto's stomach clenched at the low number. "And the rest of the planet, of course."

Ianto drew in a deep breath and tried to push himself up from the ground. Jack's arms came about him and helped, propping him up once he was on his feet. The world swam around the Welshman, his ears roaring with the motion and his insides protesting his new upright position. After just a few seconds, he leaned over and threw up again, Jack holding on tightly to keep him from falling down.

Whilst he was otherwise occupied, Jack pulled Ianto's left hand up and into the light, turning it gently to examine his burnt wrist. The skin was red still, the wound raw and fresh, but the metal that had been clamped around it was gone. Smiling in relief, he let go of the arm as Ianto straightened carefully.

"That place," Ianto began, eyes rolling in his head, "I think it was her planet, but the light, the noise..." He trailed off and grimaced in remembered pain.

Jack started to steer the traumatised man towards the SUV, keeping their steps slow and steady. "It's over now," he said. "You're home and we'll make sure she can never return here."

Ianto stiffened, causing Jack to stop and peer at him in concern. "She can't."

"That's right," Jack agreed, "we won't let her."

"No, I mean she _can't_." Ianto looked at Jack with wide and horrified eyes. "I killed her."

* * *

Jack waited until he'd bundled Ianto inside the SUV before attempting to respond to the unexpected admission, but as he slid into the driver's seat and looked over, he found a stoic mask had settled over the younger man's face. The dismay that had warped his features was gone, leaving behind only the telltale gleam of moisture in his blue eyes.

"What happened?" Jack asked, brushing his fingers over the back of Ianto's hand, just above the edge of the dirty cast. He couldn't help but touch him, surprised and relieved to have found his lover so quickly and in far better shape than he'd imagined after a trip through an alien spatial gateway.

Ianto shifted in his seat, body tense and uncomfortable. "It was...disorientating. I remember the smell of blood and her throat in my hand." The fingers of his left hand curled into a loose fist upon his thigh. For the first time, despite the younger man's already grubby state, Jack noticed the stains upon his fingers and found himself wondering at their specific origin. "I didn't mean to-"

"Of course you didn't," Jack interrupted, hating the guilt and revulsion in Ianto's voice, "but you had to. She would have killed you without a second thought."

"I know," Ianto agreed quietly, but without much conviction.

"And I much prefer this outcome to the alternative." The Captain smiled when Ianto finally met his eyes. His relief had overtaken the worry he'd been suppressing for the past few hours, creating a feeling of elation to which he was all too willing to submit. "How about we get you back to the Hub? When Owen's done at the hospital he can give you a once over and make sure that little trip didn't do anything untoward to that lovely body of yours."

Ianto's brow creased into a frown and his eyes slid away from Jack's.

"Hey," the older man said, taking a firmer grasp of Ianto's hand. "You did what you had to do. Anyone else would have done the same."

The reassurance didn't have quite the effect Jack had hoped for, however. Ianto's gaze dropped to their hands and he straightened, as though only just noticing the contact. "I can't feel any pain," he stated, surprised.

Jack grinned. "No band and no Lurrelia. Looks like we're back in action."

The young Welshman fell silent again and said nothing for so long that Jack feared something truly awful had happened to Ianto whilst he'd been gone. But then he sat up even straighter, squared his shoulders and nodded, just once, as though confirming something to himself. "Right," he said finally, though Jack wasn't entirely sure if it was in response to his previous comment or not. "Let's get going then, shall we?"

It took a moment for Jack's mind to acknowledge the command, abrupt as it was, during which time Ianto turned a forced smile on the older man. "Back to the Hub, I mean. I think my arm might need a bit of attention before we even think about any, uh, _action_."

Jack floundered for a moment longer; having neither taken his words that way nor been prepared for the u-turn in his lover's behaviour. He stopped himself from automatically calling Ianto up on it, realising it was neither the time nor the place to have that kind of discussion, and instead welcomed the suddenly lighter tone of proceedings. "Oh I don't know about that," he began, leering overtly at him, "there are plenty of actions we could perform without troubling that arm."

Ianto rolled his eyes and went to adjust a tie that was no longer where it should have been. He looked down at himself and frowned again. "I need a shower and a change of clothes," he announced. "And a new suit apparently," he added, tugging at a large hole in the knee of his trousers.

"You could always-"

With a groan that stopped Jack mid-sentence, Ianto slumped down in the seat and closed his eyes. "Can we continue this battle of wits when I've slept for at least a day?" he asked. "I promise I'll let you win if you say yes."

Jack laughed and put the SUV into gear. "Yes, Sir!" he said, easing the vehicle back onto the road and turning it towards the bay.

* * *


	24. Chapter 24

* * *

Ianto paused in the office doorway and scowled. He put his hand to his eyes and rubbed them. Then he turned around to check that he hadn't just passed through another portal into a different world. Finally he turned back and lifted both eyebrows in bewildered enquiry at Jack.

The Captain, still laughing, winked at him. "How are you feeling, Ianto?" he asked, unfolding his hands from behind his head and sitting forward at his desk.

Ianto blinked, looked pointedly at the man lounging on the small sofa, and finally decided to play along. "Better, thank you," he replied honestly. The only issue he had was lingering fatigue; he could have happily gone back to sleep, but then he wasn't entirely sure he had woken up. It certainly seemed like a dream to find John Hart sprawled in Jack's office, laughing along with the older man.

"I want Owen to have another look at you," Jack said, still seemingly unperturbed by the presence of his former partner.

"I just needed to sleep." Ianto couldn't help but look back to Hart, who leered at him, not even attempting to hide the way he was studying the Welshman's body.

"For fifteen hours?" Jack's own eyebrows shot up and then he chuckled. "I'm glad your sense of humour wasn't damaged as well, Ianto. Go see Owen anyway to ease _my_ mind, if that's how you want to think of it."

"And should I bring you both some refreshments on my way back?" Ianto asked dryly, meeting John's smug gaze and refusing to look away first.

"God, no," Jack said. "He's not going to be here that long."

That got Hart's attention and he turned from his staring contest with Ianto to gawk at the other man. "What? I thought we had an agreement?"

Jack flashed him a wide grin. "No, you made a suggestion and didn't wait for an answer. So here it is now: no, you still can't stay."

Hart narrowed his eyes, his jaw clenching angrily. "But you disabled the vortex manipulator," he said through gritted teeth. "_And_ the secondary system you weren't supposed to know about. You made sure I couldn't leave."

"That's right. I didn't want you prancing off until I was sure you wouldn't be of any further use. Now that Lurrelia's gone and Ianto's back, it's time for you to get going."

Ianto watched the exchange with a great deal of satisfaction. Although John Hart couldn't be blamed for all that had transpired, Ianto still viewed him with some contempt over the whole situation. He was a reminder of what had happened during the last week and if Jack had allowed him to stay, Ianto would've had a difficult time adjusting to his presence. He tried to hide his pleasure when John glared up at him, but he suspected that he didn't completely succeed.

Taking a step back, Ianto decided it was best to let Jack deal with the irate ex-Time Agent on his own, but Hart leapt to his feet and made to leave the office, shouldering Ianto aside as he strode by. When he reached the doorway, however, he paused for a moment before turning on his heel and coming to stand directly in front of Ianto. He smirked as the Welshman leaned back slightly, although Ianto refused to be cowed into moving away completely.

"It was fun while it lasted, Eye-Candy," he drawled, his eyes flicking over Ianto's shoulder towards Jack. "And just so you know, next time I intend to get to the main event." He grabbed the nape of Ianto's neck and pulled him into a forceful kiss. Ianto strained to pull back but it ended almost as quickly as it had started and then Hart was strutting away again through the door.

Ianto turned around to find Jack had risen to his feet, leaning over the desk with an expression of both anger and amusement. The Captain noticed his attention and offered him a blinding grin, the hint of fury vanishing instantly.

"Would it be reassuring if I told you not all my exes are that irritating?"

"Would you be telling the truth?" Ianto asked.

"Not even a little."

Ianto smiled and moved closer. "Then don't bother. Frankly I'd be more surprised if you didn't have any skeletons in your closet."

Jack laughed. "Oh I've got more than a few of those." His expression and his voice then softened. "Are you sure you're feeling okay?"

"I'm sure. I still ache from an array of bruises but it's nothing I haven't dealt with before."

"Good." Jack walked around the desk so there was nothing between them. "How about what you saw in that other world?"

Ianto grimaced. "Well, I think my dreams might be a little strange for a few nights, but I'll be fine."

"You went through something very traumatic, Ianto. I know you're strong enough to cope, but don't forget you're not on your own here," Jack told him, lifting a hand and stroking the young man's face with his fingertips. "If you want to talk about what you saw, or did, then just come find me. Okay?"

Ianto didn't respond; he was having too much trouble focusing beyond the feel of the hand on his cheek. After a long week of experiencing pain whenever Jack had touched him, to feel only warmth from the gentle caress came as a bit of a surprise. His eyes shut of their own accord and he fell forward into Jack's arms, meeting the lips that sought his own in a passionate kiss.

Ianto moaned quietly in his throat, only partially aware of being moved across the room, and then there was softness beneath him as Jack lowered them both onto the couch which John had recently vacated. Drawing back to catch his breath, Ianto looked up into Jack's bright eyes and smiled. "Before you ask," he began, "it still doesn't hurt."

"I'd kinda guessed," Jack said, grinning and leaning down to kiss him again.

"Better this way," Ianto breathed, just before Jack's lips closed with his. His legs parted on their own accord, bringing Jack closer against him, and he pressed his thighs into the Captain's hips, rocking up suggestively.

Tongues duelling, they lost themselves in each other for a long few minutes, Jack's fingers questing nimbly through Ianto's clothes and Ianto holding his lover as tightly to him as possible. Finally Jack pulled back, breathing heavily and laughing with pleasure. "We really should get you checked out, just to make sure everything's back in the right place."

Though he groaned lightly in disappointment, Ianto nodded, retaining enough of his wits to remember that the office door was wide open and everyone else was still in the Hub. "I suppose we should also wait until we're alone before you do your own examination," he pointed out with reluctance.

Jack growled unhappily at the lack of a protest and shoved his nose into Ianto's neck, breathing in his scent deeply. "I'll make sure John does as he's told whilst you're with Owen. I don't want to see him back in here ever again."

Ianto pushed Jack back enough to look him in the eyes. "You know I would never have let him do anything to me if I'd been in control."

"I know. Lurrelia was doing everything she could to hurt me, and letting John play with your body was just one of her tricks." The Captain studied his lover's face, as though committing the familiar features to his memory. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that because of me. Because of what I did."

"What she _said_ you did," Ianto corrected, sitting up and straightening his suit. "You don't know for sure that it was your fault."

"And I don't know for sure that it wasn't." Jack sighed as he stood up. "But I suppose it doesn't matter now, she's gone and everything's back to normal."

Ianto accepted Jack's hand and rose from the sofa, only to be pulled into an embrace that quickly descended into another deep kiss. When they parted for breath, Ianto rested his forehead against Jack's. "As normal as things get around here," he muttered.

* * *

Two hours later, after Ianto had dutifully sat through another examination by a scowling Owen, he saw the others out of the tourist centre and locked up behind them. Jack had yet to return from seeing John off but he felt no anxiety at that fact, knowing full well that his lover could easily handle the obnoxious Captain.

Back down in the heart of the Hub, he pottered around tidying up, but after only five minutes a noise halted his movements and he turned around to find Jack leaning in the doorway to his office.

The older man grinned at him then started to walk backwards, beckoning for Ianto to follow, but when he reached the door, Jack had already vanished down into the little bunker beneath the room. Shaking his head in amusement, Ianto eased himself over the edge of the hole and made his way slowly down the ladder.

"This isn't as easy as it looks," he said dryly as he climbed one-handed, but if he was hoping for Jack's help or sympathy he certainly didn't get it, for the Captain said nothing until he reached the bottom.

"I was hoping you'd work up a sweat."

Ianto rolled his eyes and turned to face his lover. "That's vastly less imaginative than I'd expected."

Jack shrugged and stepped aside, waving a hand at the low bed. "Why don't you lie down?"

"Oh?" Ianto looked at him suspiciously, not trusting the playful glint in his eyes.

"Actually why don't you take off your shirt, then lie down."

"Jack..." the Welshman began, but he'd already turned away and disappeared into his tiny bathroom.

"Shirt, Ianto!" Jack commanded from behind the door. The young man shook his head again and gave in graciously. He made quick work of his waistcoat and shirt buttons, but getting his arms out of the sleeves took far more finesse and he was only halfway there by the time Jack reappeared.

Chuckling fondly, the Captain moved to help him and when his chest was bare, long fingers swept gently over his skin. Ianto closed his eyes, savouring the touch, and Jack took the opportunity to steer him over to the bed.

"Lie down," Jack said quietly. "On your front." He lifted one hand to reveal the bottle of massage oil he had retrieved from the bathroom. "Now that you're better, I intend to touch you _all_ over."

Ianto shivered inwardly at Jack's determined tone and moved quickly to obey. He settled himself on the bed, mindful of his cast but eager for the unexpected offer. He loved Jack's massages, but they rarely lasted beyond five minutes thanks to the Captain's impatience to get to the next stage. Ianto hoped he'd be able to contain himself this time, because his muscles were certainly in need of some attention after the week he'd had.

Almost as soon as he was flat on the blanket, Jack began to drizzle oil over his back. He started at Ianto's neck, working on the tight knots of tension that had formed there, and the young man was unable to stop himself groaning at the initial pain. It was swiftly followed by the wonderful feeling of eased muscles as Jack moved across onto his shoulders and soon Ianto felt himself drifting somewhere between sleep and wakefulness.

The massage certainly lasted longer than usual and Jack kept his word about touching every part of the other man. At some point his trousers and underwear vanished and Jack worked his way down one leg and back up the other. After that Ianto was rolled over, though his eyes remained closed and his mind unfocused, and the fingers began again on the front of his body.

"How is it?"

Jack's words failed to break his reverie, a mere echo to Ianto's ears, and he simply hummed appreciatively in response. There came a laugh and then heated breath ghosted over his bare skin.

"Would you like me to finish you off, Sir?" the Captain drawled, hands tracing circles over the younger man's thighs.

Opening his eyes a fraction, Ianto saw that Jack had moved onto the bed, kneeling over his legs and bending to bring his mouth tantalisingly close to the semi-hard shaft before him. He had also cast aside his clothes somewhere along the line and laughed at Ianto's clear surprise at the development.

"Would I have to tip you afterwards?" Ianto asked drowsily, his hips lifting automatically upwards.

"That's entirely at your discretion," Jack told him, his voice low and full of desire. He dipped his head and ran his tongue up the length of his lover's erection, pulling back to flash him a teasing smile, but the moment he met Ianto's heavy-lidded eyes, his expression fell.

"What's wrong?" Ianto asked, alert as Jack straightened suddenly.

Jack looked away from him, guilt tightening his features. "Before, in my office-"

"Jack..."

"But I knew. I knew it was hurting you and I still-"

"Jack, please, don't."

Jack opened his mouth to protest but Ianto pushed himself up and touched the older man's cheek with his fingertips. "I know," he said softly. "But don't blame yourself. I chose not to stop you."

The Captain's blue eyes flickered back to his own, the unexpected remorse within them surprising Ianto. It truly was rare to see the immortal so distressed and that troubled Ianto far more than the situation Jack was attempting to discuss.

"We can talk about it later," Ianto said, gentle but firm. The last thing he wanted was to think about all that had happened over the past week; there were issues he wasn't ready to consider, let alone accept and to forestall any further objection, he caught Jack's lips in a tender kiss, pulling him forward until they were both laying down on the narrow bed.

It didn't take much to reignite Jack's passion and his hands returned to the task of mapping Ianto's body, followed by questing lips and tongue. They rocked against each other, erections sliding together and creating a familiar spark low in Ianto's stomach. He moaned and tried to pull his lover tighter to him but Jack twisted instead, reaching down to retrieve the bottle of oil from the floor. "I can't wait," he murmured, taking the opportunity to nibble at Ianto's earlobe as he did so. "I need you now."

Ianto grabbed the back of Jack's neck, tugging him into another deep kiss, tongues battling and teeth nipping at swollen lips. Their frantic need was heightened with each passing moment and Jack was soon reaching down between them, greased fingertips slipping over Ianto's hole. The younger man rolled his hips, desperate for more and Jack obliged him, stretching the muscles quickly but efficiently.

"Ah!" Ianto gasped, his head falling back on the pillow as Jack brushed against his prostate.

Jack chuckled and removed his fingers, eliciting a groan of protest from his lover until he hooked an arm under one of Ianto's legs, exposing him even more, and positioned his cock at the twitching ring of muscle.

The Captain hissed in pleasure as he penetrated Ianto's body, ducking his head to bite at the side of his neck in an undisguised act of possession. He set a furious pace from the start, making long deep thrusts that propelled Ianto along the mattress until his head was at risk of hitting the wall behind him. The young man blindly reached up with his left hand, turning his palm flat on the rough plasterwork and pushing back against Jack.

Their bodies crashed together, sweat glistening in the light of the small bedside lamp and breath coming in short loud gasps. "Oh, God," Ianto panted, squeezing his eyes tightly as he began to soar, but he was suddenly snatched from the edge as Jack unexpectedly interrupted their rhythm.

He pulled almost all the way out and held himself there until Ianto's eyes snapped open, alarmed and clearly concerned that something else was wrong. Jack waited until he looked up and held his gaze as he slid back in again, slow and deep and Ianto's entire being shivered at the intensity of the action.

"Did you miss this?" Jack asked in a voice thick with lust. "Did you miss my touch?"

"Yes," Ianto immediately replied. His eyelids fluttered at another inward push. "God, yes."

Jack shifted, sitting back onto his knees and pulling Ianto's hips with him so that the contact wasn't lost. The young man instinctively curled his legs around his lover, encouraging him to adjust his angle and Jack's cock pierced even deeper into his body.

The new position freed Ianto's left hand and he reached instantly for his straining erection, wrapping his fingers tightly around the hot flesh. Jack watched as he caressed himself and in turn Ianto watched him from beneath hooded eyes. The young man smiled wickedly, gradually increasing the pace of his hand and inwardly rejoicing as Jack subconsciously echoed it with the thrusting of his hips.

It wasn't long before Jack was once again slamming into him and as Ianto soared towards orgasm his hand was pushed away from his cock and Jack took over, squeezing hard as Ianto arched up, eager for completion. He reached out with both hands, his left on Jack's pumping forearm urging him to stroke even faster, whilst his right flailed for purchase and knocked accidently against the wall, but then he was coming, his surroundings forgotten as brightness burst behind his eyelids and his body tensed with wave after wave of trembling pleasure.

He gasped for air, barely conscious of Jack still plunging into him, until the Captain suddenly froze and a groan escaped from deep within his throat.

After a few minutes of stillness, Ianto forced open his eyes and peered up at Jack. He hadn't moved at all, holding Ianto's hips tight to his groin and showing no sign of releasing them any time soon. His head was tipped back slightly, but at the young man's movement, he looked down and gave him a smug grin.

"Good?" he asked lightly, laughing when Ianto merely shook his head in despair. He pulled out of Ianto's body with a quiet sigh of regret and lay down in the space the younger man had made for him. Propping himself up on one elbow, Jack idly dragged a finger along Ianto's sweat-slicked chest. "I never realised before, just how much I enjoyed being able to touch you."

"You're joking, of course," Ianto said, his voice heavy and satisfied. "You've always enjoyed _touching_. Anyway, it's only been a week. Even you can go a week without sex."

"I'm not talking about just sex," argued Jack, before ducking his head in order to lick the same path he had traced with his fingertip, "I mean everyday touching, like patting your shoulder or shaking your hand."

The Welshman frowned slightly at that and looked away from the low ceiling to raise an eyebrow at his lover. "You missed shaking my hand?" he repeated dubiously.

Jack growled. "You know what I mean. When you'd pass me a mug or something and-" He stopped abruptly as Ianto began to laugh.

"Good grief, Jack, if that does it for you I'm surprised you don't walk around with a perpetual hard-on."

"Maybe I do," Jack muttered, leaning over to kiss the chuckling man beside him. Ianto met his lips eagerly, grabbing hold of the hand still on his chest and sliding it over his skin. He shivered at the contact and stretched out to mirror the action on Jack's body, though he pulled back and scowled when he realised he couldn't reach very far with just one hand.

Jack laughed softly and moved to give him better access. "I can't wait until you have both hands again," he said, running his fingers down Ianto's right arm to his cast. Ianto didn't look up, being far too engrossed in his exploration and Jack leaned in for another kiss as he quietly added, "then you can fix my coat..."

* * *


End file.
